AUSTRALIA: Transport for Victoria has awarded Alstom a €60m contract to supply a further five X’Trapolis electric multiple-units to increase capacity on Melbourne’s 1 600 mm gauge suburban network.

Each of the 145 m long six-car 1·5 kV DC EMUs will have a capacity of 1 238 passengers, with ‘enhanced’ accessibility and improved automated safety features.

The order announced on July 15 means Alstom’s Ballarat plant has won orders to supply TfV with 106 X’Trapolis EMUs totalling 636 cars since 2002. ‘This contract will provide workload for the site between April and December 2019, while we continue to work with the state to secure the long term future of the Ballarat Workshops and the local supply chain’, said Mark Coxon, Managing Director of Alstom in Australia & New Zealand, whe the latest order was announced.

Alstom said it has now supplied more than 4 600 X’Trapolis cars to customers in Australia, Chile, Spain, South Africa and France over the past 10 years.