FRANCE: SNCF Voyageurs has awarded Alstom a €590m firm order to supply a further 15 Avelia Horizon high speed trains, designated TGV M by the operator.
The order announced on August 18 is the second option exercised under the €2∙7bn TGV of the Future framework agreement signed in July 2018 and takes the total firm order to 100 sets.
The latest batch of trainsets will be equipped to use four electrification systems: 25 kV 50 Hz, 1·5 kV DC, 3 kV DC and 15 kV 16·7 Hz.
The 320 km/h TGV M trainsets will feature a short-wheelbase power car built at Belfort which is similar to that used for the Avelia Liberty high speed trains being supplied to Amtrak in the USA.
The double-deck articulated trailers are being produced at Alstom’s Aytré plant in La Rochelle, and will provide a capacity of up to 740 passengers per trainset in the densest configuration.
Alstom says the trainsets’ maintenance costs will be more than 30% lower than SNCF’s existing TGVs. They will feature a remote diagnostic system to support predictive maintenance, as well as components optimised to simplify and reduce the work required. The aerodynamic design and more efficient traction means the trains will consume 20% less energy than current designs.
‘This order once again seals the success of very high speed trains and of the Avelia Horizon platform. This solution meets the technological, economic and competitive challenges of SNCF, in an environment of strong passenger demand for low-carbon mobility’, said Jean-Baptiste Eyméoud, President of Alstom France.
- Subscribers can read more about the TGV M in an in-depth article from the November 2020 issue of Railway Gazette International magazine.
