Dubai metro
On 31 March, Serco Group plc (Serco) signed a two-year contract extension with the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) to continue operating and maintaining the Dubai Metro until September 2021. The contract extension includes the operation and maintenance of the Red Line extension which is under construction.
The total value of the fixed base fee for the contract extension is around AED680m (equivalent to approximately €164m).
The test run of the Red Line expanded service is expected to start in February 2020, with a view to be ready for full operation ahead of Expo 2020 which begins in October. The extension will add 15km and connect seven stations. At that point, the Dubai Metro will have a total network length of 90km and over 120 trains running at peak hours.
Serco first began operating and maintaining the initial ten stations on the Red Line from the official opening of the Dubai Metro in 2009. Expansion of the Metro has seen the Red Line grow to 29 stations, while the Green Line, opened in 2011, added an additional 20 stations.
HE Mattar Al Tayer, Director-General and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of the RTA, said: “Serco has delivered operational performance levels on the Dubai Metro with a high train service availability of 99.9% and a punctuality of 99.8%, achieving a record of 204 million journeys in 2018.”
Source: Serco press release
Metropolis for REM, Montreal – design (©
Alstom Design & Styling)
The Alstom-led consortium, Groupe des partenaires pour la mobilité des Montréalais (Groupe PMM), has revealed the design of the Réseau express métropolitain (REM) train.
The external livery, chosen by the public, was inspired by the new Samuel De Champlain Bridge in Montreal, with the vehicle’s headlights directly recalling the shrouds of the new bridge. The Metropolis offers wide doors and spaces to facilitate passenger flow, acoustic comfort, vibration mitigation and passenger information in real time.
Alstom will supply 212 Metropolis cars, or 106 trainsets, for the fully automated metro.
Awarded to the Groupe PMM consortium in early 2018, the project will be the largest transit project in Quebec’s history since the Montreal metro was built over 50 years ago. Upon completion, REM will be one of the world’s largest automated transport networks – 67 kilometres long with 26 stations – connecting downtown Montreal to the South Shore, the North Shore, the West Island and Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.
Source: Alstom press release
The planned Grand Paris express GoA4 metro network, with line 14 at its centre
In March Alstom received an order for 23 trains from Île-de-France Mobilités (the organising authority for the Paris area and the rest of the Île-de-France region) and the Société du Grand Paris. The vehicles, to be used on metro lines 16 and 17 of the Grand Paris Express, will consist of 3 cars each and together be worth approximately 100 million euros. Read more →