Alstom grabs heavy hitting contract

Adif, the Spanish railway infrastructure manager, has awarded a contract globally worth around €280 million to the Alstom-led consortium to build and maintain for a period of 20 years the signalling and telecommunications systems for the Albacete-Alicante high speed line.

This is the first contract to supply HS equipment awarded by Adif in public private partnership (PPP) scheme.

Alstom, whose share of the contract is worth around €110 million, will lead the consortium made up of Grupo Comsa-Emte, Isolux Concesiones and CAF.

Alstom will undertake the global coordination of the project, the system architecture and the supply, installation and maintenance of the signalling system and European rail traffic management system (ERTMS).

The key technology in this contract is the ERTMS signalling equipment for the high speed line. For the first time in Spain, ERTMS Level 2 will be installed without the back up of Level 1 equipment. ERTMS L2 is based on a Global System for Mobile Communications dedicated for railways (GSM-R).

Alstom is the world leader in ERTMS Level 2 technology, since it has equipped 6 out of the 10 existing lines with this technology.
In particular, Alstom was the first to equip a very high speed line (the Rome-Naples line in Italy), a cross-border high speed line (from Liege in Belgium to the German border), a high traffic density line (the Mattstetten-Rothrist line in Switzerland) and a freight-only line (Havenspoorlijn line in the Netherlands).

“Alstom offers the best technology in the market, supported by the strongest traffic management capacity and the best reliability and availability of its equipment, which improves operational performance and reduces maintenance costs,” said president of Alstom Transport Henri Poupart-Lafarge.

A promoter of sustainable mobility, Alstom Transport develops and offers the most comprehensive range of systems, equipment and services in the rail sector. Alstom Transport manages all aspects of transport systems, including rolling stock, signalling and infrastructure, as well as offering its clients turnkey solutions. In 2010-2011, Alstom Transport posted sales of €5.6 billion. Alstom Transport is present in over 60 countries and employs 25,500 people.