FRANCE: Alstom announced on January 28 that it has won a contract to supply up to 70 Citadis low-floor trams to operate on tram lines T7 and T8 in Paris. The purchase is being funded jointly by RATP and STIF.
The five-module vehicles will be 32 m long and 2 400 mm wide, with capacity for 200 passengers including 56 seated. Design improvements include wider seats and more accessible door-open buttons to facilitate travel for mobility-impaired passengers.
The first tranche of the contract, valued at €50m, involves delivery of 19 vehicles for the 11·2 km line T7 with 18 stops now under construction between Villejuif and Athis-Mons to the south of Paris. A depot will be built at Vitry-sur-Seine. Interchanges will be provided to metro Line 7 at Villejuif, to RER Line C at Rungis La Fraternelle and to Orlyval at Orly Sud. Opening is envisaged in mid-2013.
The second tranche would cover 20 vehicles to work line T8, a Y-shaped 8·5 km route with 17 stops from Saint-Denis Porte de Paris northeast to Epinay-sur-Seine and Villetaneuse, will be exercised later.
Construction of T8 started in mid-2010 with opening expected in the summer of 2014. Interchanges will be provided to metro Line 13 at Saint-Denis Porte de Paris, to RER Line D and tram line T1 at Gare de Saint-Denis, and to RER Line C at Epinay-sur-Seine. A depot will be built at Villetaneuse.
RATP already has a fleet of 106 Alstom trams, of which 60 are 2 400 mm wide Citadis 302 cars used on Line T2 and 46 are 2 650 mm wide Citadis 402 cars on T3. Alstom says that the latest deal takes the total number of Citadis to more than 1 500, with 1 514 cars ordered for use in 36 cities.
