French manufacturer Alstom has signed a contract to supply 25 commuter trains to Melbourne, Australia's second most populous city, for € 300 million, the company said on Monday.
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This order is part of a design process with the Victoria Department of Transportation, which includes Melbourne and Canberra, over a two-year period.
Alstom has a local production site in Ballarat.
Exemplary reliability
If the announcement comes at a time when a crisis has arisen between France and Australia after the termination of the contract for the sale of conventional submarines from the French group Naval Group to the Australian government, it does not erase the blow to the French industry, however. Because, "
designed and manufactured in the state of Victoria, Australia, the trains will be made of at least 60% local materials,
" the statement said.
This does not prevent Alstom's management from celebrating this partnership. "
Alstom is delighted to continue its partnership with the Government of Victoria and the local supply chain through which we will continue to manufacture trains for Victoria to Victoria
", commented Mark Coxon, Managing Director of Alstom Australia and New Zealand , who specifies that Alstom had already supplied the city with "
its most reliable trains over the past twenty years
".