November 6, 2023 – Alstom SA (Paris: ALSO), global leader in smart and green mobility, celebrates the November 4 launch of the new Edmonton Valley Line Southeast LRT. This project was delivered by TransEd, a consortium comprised of Alstom, along with Bechtel, EllisDon and Fengate, contributing to the enhanced connectivity of Edmonton’s residents today and for the future. The city is expecting it to serve about 30,000 riders per day.
Under this partnership, Alstom played a pivotal role in the design, supply, installation and testing and commissioning of the LRVs, signalling, communications, power supply and distribution, overhead catenary system, and related depot equipment. This Turnkey project is a Public-Private Partnership (P3) that includes a now completed Design-Build stage, and an operation and maintenance (O&M) commitment extending until 2050.
Alstom also assumes a majority share in the joint venture responsible for the O&M of the system for TransEd. This includes maintaining the complete fleet, tracks, catenary, stations, maintenance facility and all other elements of the system, as well as all aspects of operating the fleet including crew training and dispatching, control room management, customer service and passenger experience. A team of more than 125 experts is devoted to delivering exceptional services to the Edmontonians. Notably, this represents the first LRT system where Alstom is involved in the complete O&M scope of the system.
The 26 Flexity LRVs, each capable of carrying up to 275 passengers along the 13 km system, offer a 100 per cent low-floor design, ensuring easy access and a comfortable ride for all passengers. Step-free boarding is an important part of this enhanced passenger experience for persons with reduced mobility, wheelchairs, mobility aids and strollers.
Alstom takes pride in designing and assembling these vehicles in Canada, creating good-paying Canadian jobs. With 4,500 employees in Canada, including those in Edmonton, Alstom is committed to delivering safe and reliable mobility solutions while actively fostering local supply chains and regional economies.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including expected delivery dates. Such statements are based on current expectations and projections about our future results, prospects and opportunities and are not guarantees of future performance. Such statements will not be updated unless required by law. Actual results and performance may differ materially from those expressed or forecasted in forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including those discussed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Significant increase in reliability and ride comfort
The introduction of the new “FV-Dosto” double-deck long-distance train on the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) route network is making significant and measurable progress. As the manufacturer Bombardier Transportation explained at its Swiss headquarters in Zurich, the reliability of the 25 trains available to the SBB has been increased by a factor of seven, and ride comfort has been substantially improved thanks to newly installed software. This and the train’s highly energy-efficient drive concept, also led to a significant improvement in punctuality on the routes operated with the FV-Dosto. With the help of software developed and adapted by Bombardier, it has been possible to reduce the previously noticeable vibrations, particularly in the upper decks of trains by up to 75 per cent, thereby substantially increasing ride comfort.
As Stéphane Wettstein, the Swiss Managing Director of Bombardier Transportation, explained, the technical reliability of the FV-Dosto trains used, once again significantly increased to 6,914 km of trouble-free operation in October. This corresponds to an improvement by a factor of seven over the last 11 months. Approximately 34 per cent of service disruptions are caused by operational and passenger-triggered incidents and accordingly affect the overall reliability of operations. Wettstein put the increase in the technical reliability of the trains down to the effectiveness of the agreed actions and the increasing mileage of the Dosto fleet, which has now covered a total of around 2.27 million kilometres. He is therefore confident that technical and operational reliability will continue to improve steadily. Since the timetable change in December 2018, around 75 per cent of the technical causes of disruptions have been eliminated.
Reliability and drive concept have a positive effect on punctuality
The greater reliability and increasing trouble-free availability of the trains also have a positive effect on the punctuality of the IR and IC services operated by the FV-Dosto. According to the surveys on the statistics website pünktlichkeit.ch, it is better in eastern Switzerland than in other parts of the country. This is not only due to higher reliability of the FV-Dosto trains, but also to their drive concept: unlike conventional trains, the FV-Dosto is not pulled or pushed by a locomotive, but driven by high energy-efficient and permanent magnet motors on the axles of the individual carriages. This allows long-distance trains to accelerate much faster, which positively contributes to timetable adherence.
Substantial improvement of ride comfort
In recent weeks, great progress has also been made in terms of ride comfort. With the new software installed in September 2019, it has been possible to eliminate the vibrations that used to be felt, mainly in the upper deck, to such an extent that some of them are now lower than in conventional double-deck trains. However, Stéphane Wettstein pointed out that, although Bombardier’s mechatronic bogies had been able to improve ride comfort, railway infrastructure, which also influences passengers’ level of comfort, has not gotten any better.
The technologically complex system for eliminating vibrations is based on stabilizing the carriage body in every driving situation, in such a way that the passenger feels less of the centrifugal forces in curves and changes of direction when passing over points than in conventional double-deck or tilting trains. While the ICN tilting train, which was also built by Bombardier as the consortium leader, tilts inwards in curves up to 7°, the FV-Dosto stays perpendicular to the track level. Together with the drive system and the pressure-tight carriage body, which prevents unpleasant pressure on the ears, especially when travelling through tunnels, this system is one of the major innovations of what is currently the world’s most modern long-distance train.
SBB already has 25 new trains
“The FV-Dosto is technologically a leading product in the industry in terms of its energy efficiency and the wide range of comfort it offers its passengers, even on a global scale – something Switzerland can be proud of, especially since important systems such as the traction or the bogies were developed in Switzerland and are largely manufactured in Switzerland,” says Swiss Managing Director of Bombardier Transportation Stéphane Wettstein.
Bombardier has now delivered a total of 25 of the FV-Dosto trains, which corresponds to SBB’s planning for the timetable change in 2019. By summer 2021, the entire fleet of (62) trains will have been delivered. The great public interest in the FV-Dosto has also prompted Bombardier to intensify communication regarding this high-tech train. The company has launched a website at swissdosto.ch which provides continually updated information on the introduction and operation of the train on the Swiss rail network.
Bombardier creates considerable value in Switzerland
Bombardier Transportation is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of public transport vehicles, mainly rail vehicles. The company is headquartered in Montreal, Canada and employs around 40,000 people around the world. More than 100,000 Bombardier vehicles are in service worldwide, carrying some 500 million passengers every day. In Switzerland, Bombardier’s roots go back some 120 years; many of the famous Swiss railway manufacturers from Secheron and MFO to BBC, ABB and Schindler Waggonbau to SLM have been combined under Bombardier over the decades. Today, around 870 employees work for Bombardier in Switzerland, 340 of them at the headquarters and global development centre in Zurich and 530 at the Villeneuve (VD) plant. Numerous Swiss suppliers are also involved in the development and production of the FV-Dosto, and their order volume accounts for around 50 per cent of the total external investment volume of CHF 600 million for the (62) ordered trains. After all, Bombardier is not only the supplier of FV-Dosto for SBB, but also of locomotives, technical services and the BOMBARDIERFLEXITYtram, which is already being used successfully in Geneva and Basel and the first of which will also be handed over to the Zurich public transport operator VBZ on November 15, 2019.
Innovative lightweight concept allows wider trams to use existing infrastructureBombardier wins contract to supply and maintain 30 FLEXITY trams for Dresden’s transport authority
Contract includes the FlexCare maintenance management system and the Obstacle Detection and Assistance System
Mobility solution provider Bombardier Transportation and Dresden’s transport authority Dresdner Verkehrsbetriebe (DVB), have signed a contract to supply and maintain 30 BOMBARDIER FLEXITY trams, equipped with the Obstacle Detection and Assistance System (ODAS) for preventing collisions. The contract also includes the FlexCare maintenance management system for a 24-year period. The value of the order is 197 million euro ($219 million US). In addition, an option for ten additional FLEXITY trams and eight more years of servicing and maintenance are included in the contract.
The new FLEXITY trams are wider than DVB’s current vehicles and offer significantly greater comfort for passengers with 2+2 seating and large panorama windows. The new trams will be able to carry up to 290 passengers, which is around a 10 percent increase. To allow barrier-free access while using the existing infrastructure, only the portion of the carbody which is above platform level is wider. The new fleet will be delivered by the end of October 2023.
“I am pleased that Dresdner Verkehrsbetriebe is counting on the employees’ competence, know-how and the quality of Bombardier’s products here in Saxony and that these modern light rail vehicles are being built at the Saxon sites. The future of both factories and Bombardier’s long-term commitment are very close to my heart. I am confident that Saxon products will also increasingly prevail in many tenders outside Saxony due to their quality, which combines innovation and sustainability,” emphasized Saxony’s Minister of Economic Affairs, Martin Dulig.
“We urgently need the new light rail vehicles, which provide larger capacity, in order to offer sufficient space for the rapidly growing number of our passengers,” said Andreas Hemmersbach, DVB’s Board Member for Finance and Technology. He added, “In a multi-stage selection process, criteria such as technology, price, service and design were evaluated on a points-based system. Of all the manufacturers, Bombardier offered us the best overall package.”
“We are proud to support our long-standing partner and customer DVB in their transport service expansion by supplying our innovative, reliable and air conditionedFLEXITY trams, offering generous multi-purpose areas and the highest safety standards. Our FlexCare maintenance management system not only ensures high availability and reliability, but also guarantees cost security over the entire term of the contract. Hand in hand with DVB, we will carry out servicing and maintenance of these FLEXITY trams together,” explained Alexander Ketterl, responsible for the urban transport business at Bombardier Transportation in Germany.
Michael Fohrer, Head of Bombardier Transportation Germany, added, “This contract will be carried out at our two sites in Saxony. The carbodies will be produced in our center of competence for carbodies in Görlitz. Final assembly and commissioning will be carried out at our industrial lead site in Bautzen.”
More than 4,000 trams and light rail vehicles from Bombardier are already successfully in operation or on order worldwide.
