FRANCE: Paris transport authority Île‐de‐France Mobilités and operators RATP and SNCF Voyageurs have reached agreement with Alstom‐Bombardier and CAF, paving the way for construction of the MI20 fleet of electric multiple-units to operate RER Line B.
In January, the operators selected a consortium of Bombardier Transportation and CAF as preferred bidder for a €2·56bn contract to build 146 new trains, which would replace the existing MI79 and MI84 EMUs on Line B, with an option for a further 34. The procurement is being financed by Île‐de‐France Mobilités, and CAF put its share of the contract scope at approximately 40%.
However, by the time that the contract award was announced on February 5, Bombardier Transportation had been taken over by Alstom, which had issued a legal challenge against the original decision and subsequently declined to ratify the contract.
On April 14 Île‐de‐France Mobilités, RATP and SNCF announced that negotiations between the various parties over the past few weeks had enabled the new Alstom‐Bombardier group ‘to gain a full understanding of the contractual terms and address any outstanding concerns’. This meant that that the consortium was ‘now in a position to implement the contract as per the award’. The consortium had confirmed its commitment to the contract at a final meeting on April 13, they explained, along with its ‘intent to initiate the subsequent implementation stages’.
The first of the new EMUs is scheduled to be delivered at the end of 2025.
