Alstom to Provide 34 Light Rail Vehicles and Maintenance Services for Ottawa

Regulatory News:

Alstom (Paris:ALO) finalised a contract to provide 34 light rail vehicles and 30 years of maintenance services to the Rideau Transit Group (RTG) consortium^[1] that was selected to design, build, finance, and maintain the first line of the Ottawa Light Rapid Transit (OLRT) system worth over €1.5 billion (2.1 billion Canadian dollars). Alstom’s portion of the contract is worth approximately €400 million.

The new Citadis Spirit that Alstom is launching in the North American market will have many features that accommodate Ottawa’s particular needs. Designed in a high capacity version, it will be able to operate in extreme winter conditions. It will also benefit from a top speed of 100 km/hour (65 mph), reducing travel time between suburban areas and the City Center. As all Alstom trams, it will have a full low-floor accessibility and onboard bicycle storage. Alstom will build the vehicles in America and assemble them in Ottawa.

Ottawa will rely on its state-of-the-art 12.5 kilometre Light Rapid Transit system which will provide service to the downtown area via 13 stations and a 2.5 kilometre tunnel. Construction of the project will start in the next few months and the system is expected to enter full service in spring of 2018.

"This project marks the successful entry of Alstom into the North American Light Rail Vehicle market. Alstom will bring its experience as the market leader in tramways. The Alstom Citadis Spirit light rail vehicle is very flexible and can be adapted to the needs of other cities across North America.” said Guillaume Mehlman, Alstom Transport North American President.

Alstom has produced 1,600 Citadis tramways for 40 cities all around the world. They transported 4.8 billion travellers (2 million per day) and ran over 400 million kilometres. Alstom’s Citadis-Dualis tram-train – with a configuration similar to that of Ottawa – has been operating for nearly two years in the Nantes suburbs and more recently in the city of Lyon at a speed of up to 100 km/h. In addition, the company has proven experience developing public private partnerships that enable local communities to finance such projects in a fiscally efficient and competitive manner.

Taken together, these proven capabilities—combined with the company’s extensive manufacturing and service footprint in North America—put Alstom in an ideal position to deliver efficient, modern and proven solutions to communities pursuing light rail transit projects.

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About Alstom
Alstom is a global leader in the world of power generation, power transmission and rail infrastructure and sets the benchmark for innovative and environmentally friendly technologies. Alstom builds the fastest train and the highest capacity automated metro in the world, provides turnkey integrated power plant solutions and associated services for a wide variety of energy sources, including hydro, nuclear, gas, coal and wind, and it offers a wide range of solutions for power transmission, with a focus on smart grids. The Group employs 92,000 people in around 100 countries. It had sales of €20 billion and booked close to €22 billion in orders in 2011/12.

^[1] Led by ACS Infrastructure Canada Inc., and includes SNC-Lavalin, ACS, Ellisdon and other companies with transit and construction experience in Canada and across the world.