FRANCE: Alstom presented the first new-generation trainset that it is supplying to increase capacity on the Lille metro at the Villeneuve d’Ascq maintenance depot on November 14.
Alstom is supplying 27 four-car rubber-tyred trainsets to operate on the city’s automated light metro network. The 52 m long walkthrough trains with capacity for 405 passengers are due to enter service from 2023. The trains are equipped with multimedia passenger information screens, CCTV and spaces for passengers with reduced mobility.
As part of a wider modernisation of the Lille metro, Alstom is also supplying Urbalis Fluence signalling. Installation of the new generation of train control equipment, which Alstom says is the product’s first application, is due to be completed in 2021.
Alstom is also renovating the existing VAL208 trainsets that operate on Line 1. The network in Lille opened using MATRA’s VAL technology; MATRA was acquired by Siemens in the mid-1990s.
