AUSTRALIA: The first of 60 Citadis X05 trams that Alstom is supplying to operate on the CBD & South East Light Rail line in Sydney has been rolled out, and is due to arrive in Sydney later this year.
A consortium including Alstom signed a A$2·1bn PPP contract to build, operate and maintain the light rail line in late 2014, with financial close taking place early the following year. The ALTRAC Light Rail consortium also includes Transdev Sydney, Acciona Infrastructure Australia and Capella Capital, in addition to three equity investors: John Laing, First State Super and Acciona Concesiones. The line is due to open in 2019.
This is the first order for trams from the X05 family. These vehicles have permanent magnet motors, double doors for improved passenger flows, large ‘balcony style’ windows, LED lighting, CCTV, passenger intercoms and real-time passenger information.
Final assembly is taking place at Alstom’s Barcelona factory, which is also producing the aluminium bodyshells, along with La Rochelle. The steel underframes come from Katowice, bogies from Le Creusot, motors from Ornans and the inverters and other electronics from Tarbes, Sesto and Villeurbanne.
The five-section trams are intended to operate in 67 m long coupled pairs, offering capacity for 450 passengers. A 2 km section of the 12 km route on George Street between Town Hall and Circular Quay will be equipped with Alstom’s APS ground-level power supply to allow catenary-free operation. Alstom is also supplying signalling, power supply equipment, its HESOP energy recovery system and depot equipment.
