ANGLO-French rolling stock supplier GEC Alsthom announced in February that it had won two contracts to supply metro and commuter rail trainsets to South America.
On February 11 GEC Alsthom won a Fr300m order to build a further 6 seven-car trains for Lines 1 and 2 of the Santiago metro. They will follow a batch of 17 sets now being assembled at the CIMT works in Valenciennes for Santiago Line 5. These are derived from the rubber-tyred MP89 trainsets for Paris Line 1 (RG 2.96 p61), and bring the total fleet supplied to the Chilean capital since 1978 to 438 cars.
The following day, a consortium led by GEC Alsthom with Adtranz and CAF won a £130m contract to build 30 four-car EMUs for São Paulo’s commuter operator Companhía Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos. These steel-bodied sets with two driving motor cars and two centre trailers are designed to carry up to 1000 passengers at 120 km/h. Manufacture is being divided between GEC Alsthom Transporte in Barcelona, CAF, and local Brazilian companies. Adtranz will supply the traction equipment, rated at 2400 kW per unit. o
