ON JULY 16 Bombardier Transportation announced that its BN subsidiary in Belgium had won an order from SNCB to supply 210 double-deck coaches, in consortium with Alstom. The long-awaited BFr8·5bn contract requires deliveries over a two-year period beginning in May 2001. The vehicles will be assembled by Bombardier’s Atlantic Europe division, and the two companies will share the contract value equally.
The 220 km/h inter-city stock will be formed into 35 six-car sets offering a capacity of 770 seats. There will be one first class car seating 124, four standard class vehicles with 140 seats each, and an 86-seat service car with provision for disabled passengers and space for bicycles.
Meanwhile, Bombardier’s Continental Europe arm has beaten Alstom in a competition to supply 30 double-deck trainsets to Israel Railways. Earlier this year IR selected Alstom as preferred bidder for the order (RG 5.99 p262), but after negotiations broke down over technical specifications the bidding was reopened. IR announced on June 22 that the vehicles would now be coming from the Bombardier-DWA plant at G
