AUSTRALIA: Victoria’s Department of Transport has exercised an option to purchase a further 12 three-car Alstom VLocity diesel multiple-units.
These will be used on V/Line services on the 1 600 mm gauge routes from Melbourne to Shepparton and Warrnambool.
The firm order announced by Alstom on September 9 is the third option to be exercised under a contract placed in 2018, and follows the allocation of A$250m under the state’s 2022-23 budget.
Alstom has now received orders for a total of 118 standard and broad gauge VLocity regional trains since 2001, with 99 in service and 19 still to be manufactured at its factory in Dandenong with 65% local content.
‘These locally designed and manufactured trains have proven themselves to be safe, comfortable and reliable for nearly two decades which is a true testament to the skills, workmanship and dedication to quality of our local employees’, said Mark Coxon, Managing Director at Alstom Australia & New Zealand.
