Alstom and its strategic partner in Russia, Transmashholding (TMH), have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the city of Saint Petersburg which establishes a programme of cooperation for the development of a modern tramway network. The agreement was signed by Georgiy Poltavchenko, the Governor of Saint Petersburg, Andrey Bokarev, CEO of TMH, et Henri Poupart-Lafarge, President of Alstom Transport.

Under the terms of this agreement, Alstom and TMH undertake to develop together a new model of express tramway, fitted with a low floor throughout, entirely modular and adapted to the climatic conditions of the region to meet the needs of the city of Saint Petersburg.

Under the agreement’s framework, Alstom and TMH would also be providing the city with consulting services for questions related to the organisation of urban transport networks, project management and the optimisation of passenger flows. The partners would also bring their expertise for supplying electricity for the network, building infrastructure and signalling. The agreement provides for the constitution of a tripartite work group for these questions.

Design and engineering, production, assembly and maintenance activities would all be concentrated in Saint Petersburg at the tramway competence centre which Alstom and TMH would be establishing at the Oevrz site. The factory currently employs 1,000 people who work on the maintenance and renovation of rolling stock.

Alstom will be bringing its technological know-how in the tramway field to the partnership. More than 1,500 units of the Alstom Group’s flagship model, Citadis, have been sold in nearly 40 countries, and this tramway has covered more than 245 million kms and transported over 4 billion passengers since its first entry into service 11 years ago. Today one low floor tramway out of three in the world has been built by Alstom.