Within a concession associating ALSTOM and Bouygues, the Reims Metropolitan Authority chooses an ALSTOM “APS” wire-free CITADIS tramway

Levallois-Perret, France – The Reims Metropolitan authority, in France, selected the “Mobilité Agglomération Rémoise” (MARS) consortium¹, led by ALSTOM, to build the first line of the metropolitan authority’s tram system.

Signed on 13 July 2006, this contract, worth € 1.4 billion, will be financed as a concession over a 30 year period. It covers the construction of the tram line, urban civil works and the operation of the bus and tram networks throughout the concession period. ALSTOM’s share of the contract is worth € 222 million. ALSTOM will hold 17% of the share capital of the concession company, which represents a € 5 million investment.

The Reims tram system is a good example of cooperation between ALSTOM and Bouygues. Bouygues, through Bouygues Construction, Colas and their respective subsidiaries, will be responsible for the civil works. ALSTOM Transport will be responsible within the concession company of the construction and maintenance of the 18 CITADIS™ trams, the rail network, the signalling equipment, the power supply, the overhead power cable and the ticketing.

For this contract, ALSTOM will also benefit from the cooperation it has developed with Transdev for other networks, such as Valenciennes or Grenoble.

Following Bordeaux in 2000 and Angers on 11 July 2006, Reims is the third city to choose an APS Citadis tramway, ALSTOM’s unique innovative “wireless” ground-level power system. It will preserves Reims’ historical city centre over a 2 kilometres portion of the 11.2 km line. The line will serve 22 stations.

The vehicles will be delivered between October 2009 and 2010 first quarter. Revenue service is scheduled to start at the end of 2010. Each tram will measure 32 metres and will carry over 200 passengers. The trams will be designed and assembled in ALSTOM’s La Rochelle factory – the company’s Centre of Excellence for trams. Four other ALSTOM sites in France will supply sub-systems: Tarbes the traction drives, Ornans the traction motors, Le Creusot the bogies, and Villeurbanne the tram electronics.

Reims is the world’s 24th city to have chosen CITADIS™ – the 15th in France. This further confirms ALSTOM’s success with this product line and its leadership in the French tram market, where 80% of the steel-wheel trams are ALSTOM-built. To date, 800 CITADIS™ have been ordered worldwide, including 400 in commercial service. CITADIS™ trams have carried over 1 billion passengers and have demonstrated reliability over a total distance of 76 million kilometres.

¹ Partners of the “MARS” consortium

• Authorised representative, trams, power supply (including APS), signalling, infrastructure (rail tracks), maintenance, ticketing: ALSTOM Transport SA
• Civil engineering: Bouygues Travaux Publics SA, Colas SA, Pertuy Construction SA, Quille SA
• Operation : Transdev
• Engineering: Pingat ingénierie SAS, SNC-Lavalin International Inc.,
• Financial institutions: Caisse d’Epargne Champagne-Ardenne, Caisse des Dépôts, IXIS Corporate & Investment Bank SA