ON AUGUST 3, Alstom announced that it had been selected to supply 70 Citadis LRVs to operate the planned 31 km light rail network in Madrid.
Signing of the €144·6m contract is expected this month. The cars are to be built at the company’s Spanish plant, which assembled the Citadis cars for the two light rail networks in Barcelona. Deliveries are expected to run from 2006 until June 2007. Each car will be able to carry up to 372 passengers, and operate at up to 70 km/h.
A few days earlier, the President of Alstom Spain, Antonio Oporto, signed the €296·6m contract to supply 50 trainsets to operate Barcelona metro Line 9. These are to be supplied to ATM under an 18-year leasing deal financed by ICF Holding, La Caixa, Caja Madrid and Société Générale (RG 2.04 p66). During the ceremony, Oporto confirmed that Alstom will open a research & development centre at its Santa Perpetua de Mogoda facility near Barcelona.
