Alstom and Romanian metro operator agree on 15-year maintenance contract
Alstom has bagged a 15-year, 500-million euro maintenance contract with Bucharest metro network operator Metrorex. The contract, announced on Monday but registered earlier in December, will see Alstom overhaul a fleet of 82 trains.
Alstom, which has been providing maintenance services for Metrorex since 2004, will also carry out preventive and corrective maintenance on a fleet that comprises 492 cars, which rack up a combined 8,5 million kilometres every year. Some 350 people are involved in the maintenance activities.
According to Alstom, it has helped increase train availability in Bucharest from 56 percent to 99,96 percent over the past 17 years. During this period, the company carried out more than 60 types of refurbishments on the trains.
New Metropolis trains
The new maintenance contract coincides with the addition of at least 13 new Alstom Metropolis trains from next year onwards. They will enter service on Metro Line 5, for which the company implemented Romania’s first communications-based train control (CBTC) signalling system. The contract for the new trains dates back to December 2020 and contains an option for another 17 trains.
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“According to Alstom, it has helped increase train availability in Bucharest from 56 percent to 99,96 percent over the past 17 years. During this period, the company carried out more than 60 types of refurbishments on the trains.”
Technically speaking, back when Alstom took the maintenance, the fleet was also much older, comprising of only 18 Bombardier BM2 6-car trains and lots of Astra IVA trains with their problems, since then they have been replaced one by one by future train orders.