FRANCE: Alstom says ‘capacity, fluidity and comfort for passengers’ will be offered by the 37 automated metro trainsets that it is to supply for the future Grand Paris Express Line 18.
The interior design unveiled on February 15 was developed by Alstom’s Advanced & Creative Design office in collaboration with Ile-de-France Mobilités, SGP and Egis Rail. Manufacturing is to begin at Alstom’s Valenciennes-Petite-Forêt factory later this year, with the first trains scheduled to enter service from 2026.
The three-car trainsets will be 47 m long with a capacity of 350 passengers. The interior lighting will adjust to the time of day, and the trains will feature air-conditioning, wi-fi, USB sockets, CCTV and passenger information screens.
Each car will feature three 1·65 m wide doors, with wide aisles to ‘give a spacious feeling and allow a greater flow of traffic’. The ‘spacious’ gangways will have a rigid lining instead of the traditional bellows.
There will be a variety of handrails, standing spaces seats, including tip-up seats to provide more stranding space at peak times. Passengers with reduced mobility have been involved in the design process, and there will be wheelchair spaces as well as priority seats with a red colour for easy identification.
The centre cars will have dedicated space for luggage, as Line 18 will serve Paris Orly airport.
The 1·5 kV DC third rail units will have a maximum speed of 100 km/h and be equipped for regenerative braking. The Urbalis Fluence CBTC will support GoA4 unattended automatic operation with 85 sec headways.
