The Poitou-Charentes and Auvergne regions have just placed an order with Alstom to supply 10 and 12 regional trains, respectively, from the Coradia Polyvalent range (Régiolis) for some €125 million. The Auvergne region is already operating 37 regional Alstom trains and the Poitou-Charentes region, 18 trains.
The order, which was booked in the third quarter of fiscal year 2010/11, is part of the contract financed by the French regions and signed on 27 October 2009 with SNCF. The initial contract consisted of a first tranche totalling €800 million for the supply of 100 Coradia Polyvalent trains.
The two order options exercised in January (19 trainsets) and March (23 rames) 2010, brought the total number of trainsets ordered to 142 units. To date, 164 trainsets have been ordered and will be distributed among the regions of Alsace, Aquitaine, Auvergne, Basse-Normandie, Haute-Normandie, Lorraine, Midi-Pyrénées, Pays de la Loire, Picardie, Poitou-Charentes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur. The total volume of trains could eventually reach 1,000 Coradia Polyvalent trains, for total orders of over €7 billion.
The production delivery of the contract dated October 2009 is currently ongoing. The first carriage frame is being finished at Alstom’s plant in Reichshoffen, Alsace, and the first train will roll off the assembly line in June 2011. The deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2013 and end in mid-2015.
Coradia Polyvalent will be entirely designed, manufactured and assembled in Alstom Transport facilities in France and Belgium: train engineering and assembly in Reichshoffen (Alsace); bogies in Le Creusot (Bourgogne); motors in Ornans (Franche-Comté); traction drives in Tarbes (Midi-Pyrénées); onboard computing systems in Villeurbanne (Rhône-Alpes); and electrical equipment in Charleroi (Belgium).
Régiolis, a product of Alstom’s range of regional Coradia trains
The highly-modular Coradia Polyvalent range is a single-level regional train offering different technical configurations and modular fittings for passengers. It can travel at up to 160 km/h in both its electric and hybrid versions and operates at two different voltages (25 kV and 1,500 V). It is also available in a cross-border version for operation on the German and Swiss rail networks at a voltage of 15 kV. Its platform-height floor provides travellers with optimal accessibility and full all-point visibility for improved security. Motor bogies are positioned at the ends of the carriages to limit vibrations and noise levels.
The Coradia Polyvalent consumes about 15% less energy than its competitors – and hence less CO2 – and its design incorporates eco-friendly and sustainable materials. It is equipped with permanent magnet motors that are more compact and efficient than conventional electric motors. The technical choices incorporated into its design serve the two-fold purpose of facilitating maintenance and optimizing life-cycle cost.
Thanks to over 30 years’ experience in regional transportation, Alstom’s Coradia range of regional and suburban trains provides adapted solutions to the sharp rise in road traffic, both within cities and on motorways, and to continued suburban sprawl. Alstom has built over 3,000 regional trains in its French, German and Italian plants, which have already covered more than 4 billion kilometres.
