EGYPT: The National Authority for Tunnels has reached an agreement for Alstom to supply and maintain 55 Metropolis trainsets for Cairo Metro Line 1, and has awarded CAF and Mitsubishi a contract to refurbish 23 existing trains.
The agreements announced on November 8 form part of the modernisation of the city’s first metro line, which opened in 1987 and now carries 2·5 million passengers per day on the 44 km route between El Marg in the north and Helwan in the south.
Alstom’s €876m contract is expected to come into force in Q4 2021-22; it will be financed by the French government under an agreement signed by Egypt’s Minister of Transport Kamel El-Wazir and France’s Minister of the Economy, Finance & Recovery Bruno Le Maire in June.
Alstom said the nine-car Metropolis trainsets would be tailored to the specific requirements of Line 1, with a unique design intended ‘to reflect the history and culture of Cairo’.
The interiors will have wide gangways to maximise capacity, accessibility and passenger flow, with each train able accommodate up to 2 580 passengers. There will be dedicated areas for women, as well as real-time passenger information, dynamic route maps, video displays and CCTV.
The deal includes eight years of maintenance, and the fleet is to be equipped with Alstom’s HealthHub predictive maintenance platform which the manufacturer says can save up to 20% in labour and 15% in materials consumption.
The vehicles will be designed and manufactured at Alstom’s Petite-Forêt plant in Valenciennes, with Le Creusot supplying the bogies and traction motors, Villeurbanne the passenger information systems and Toulouse responsible for electrical engineering.
A training and development plan for local workers is to be rolled out in partnership with the operator, Egyptian Company for Metros.
Meanwhile, CAF and original supplier Mitsubishi have been appointed to refurbish 23 existing trainsets used on Line 1 and maintain them for two years. This will include upgrading the traction system and onboard equipment, and installing air-conditioning
The €180m contract is being financed by Spain’s Enterprise Internationalisation Fund. The refurbishment work is to be undertaken at the line’s new Kozzika depot, which CAF will fit out as part of the project.
CAF and Mitsubishi have also signed a memorandum of understanding with NAT for the future refurbishment of the Japanese-built trains on Line 2.
