FRANCE: Alstom is to supply 16 eight-car Omneo Premium electric multiple-units for the Marseille – Toulon – Nice TER services which Transdev is to operate under contract to Région Sud from summer 2025.
Transdev beat bids from incumbent operator SNCF and Trenitalia’s Thello subsidiary to win the €870m, 10-year contract to operate the Intermetropole group of services which will be increased to 2∙45 million train-km/year.
The €250m rolling stock order includes 10 years of maintenance and overhaul services. Deliveries from Alstom’s Crespin plant are scheduled to begin at the end of 2024.
‘We are proud to participate in the implementation of the first concession of a French regional line with Transdev’, said Olivier Delecroix, Sales Director of Alstom France, on December 16.
The image of the region
A total of 491 Omneo trainsets have been ordered by 10 French regions, including 373 Regio2N suburban and regional units and 118 Omneo Premium inter-city variants.
The trains for the Marseille – Toulon –Nice route will be adapted to meet Transdev and the region’s specific requirements, which include a catering area with a ‘convivial’ space, a separate first class area and an interior ‘reflecting the image of the region and of the line’, with large windows to take advantage of the natural light and provide sea views.
The 110 m long partly double-deck EMUs will have 352 seats, plus 66 folding seats for short journeys and 12 bicycle spaces. They will be equipped with CCTV, passenger counting technology, seat and bicycle space reservation systems, power sockets and 4G train to ground communications.
‘We are offering a proven, comfortable train, capable of running at 200 km/h, in order to serve all passengers’, said Delecroix. ‘We will also provide maintenance support and thus contribute to the long-term operational efficiency of the trains. These new trainsets will replace the current Corail cars and will be added to the many Alstom trains already running in Région Sud.’
