The Toulouse Metropole has chosen Alstom to supply the system for the city’s third metro line.
The new line, measuring 27km in length, will be called Toulouse Aerospace Express. The contract is worth 470 million euros. Should all of the contract options be called, the total order value could rise to 713 million euros. The line will have 21 stations in total.
The firm tranche of the order will allow up to 5,000 passengers to be transported per hour per direction. The contract options could increase this to 10,000 passengers per hours per direction. Alstom says it will design the system to cope with up to 15,000 passengers per hour per direction, by increasing the number of metro cars from two to three. This way, capacity can be increased without having to make changes to the infrastructure.
Alstom will supply its Metropolis trains, its Urbalis 400 CBTC solution for driverless metro operations, and its Hesop reversible substations. Other aspects of the contract include platform screen doors and the track, including track laying with the automated Appitrack solution. Lastly, the firm tranche includes six years of maintenance, with 12 years of maintenance as an option.
Toulouse is one of the two main metropolitan centres at the heart of Aerospace Valley, a cluster of aerospace engineering companies and research centres, which is home to names such as Air Bus, Air France Industries and Dassault Aviation. The Toulouse Aerospace Express is to connect Colomiers station near Toulouse-Blagnac Airport with Labège in the southeast of the city via the city centre.
