Alstom has been awarded a €1n (1.8 billion Australian dollars) contract as part of a consortium to build a new railway line in Melbourne in the Australian state of Victoria.

The total contract value to build the Suburban Rail Loop East Line is €4.9 (8.8 billion Australian dollars), and was awarded by the Suburban Rail Loop Authority to the TransitLinX Alliance, which, as well as Alstom, includes John Holland, KBR, WSP and RATP Dev.

As part of the consortium, Alstom will build 13 automated Metropolis metro trains, including 15-year maintenance, an Urbalis Communications-Based Train Control (CBTC) system, cybersecurity, wired and wireless communications, and screen doors at station platforms.

Alstom will build the trains at its factory at Dandenong in Melbourne and will also be responsible for integrating the overall system.

The first trains are scheduled to enter service in 2035 and will be designed to operate under Grade of Automation 4 (GOA4) under the control of Alstom’s fully integrated signalling system, Urbalis CBTC.

Maintenance of the trains, signalling and infrastructure will be overseen by Alstom’s ‘FlexCare Perform’ full maintenance solution at a new purpose-built maintenance facility at Heatherton in Melbourne.

The Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) is a 90 km orbital rail loop through Melbourne’s middle suburbs, and is Australia’s largest rail and housing infrastructure project.

The first stage, SRL East, will comprise 26 km of railway line and six underground stations near major employment, education, and health precincts.

This will be Australia’s second fleet of driverless trains, after Alstom’s Metropolis metro fleet entered service in Sydney in 2019.

Last year, Alstom won a €1bn contract to design, supply, build, install, test, commission and maintain high-capacity signalling technology at Perth in Western Australia. Alstom also has a contract to maintain the VLocity and Classic fleets of regional trains in Victoria.

Ling Fang, Alstom’s Asia-Pacific Region President, commented that as the world’s leading pure rail player, Alstom brings comprehensive turnkey solutions to meet the needs of its customers in Australia and the wider Asia-Pacific Region. This project is of global significance in its ambition and scale, and Melbourne joins the ranks of other leading global cities in deploying Alstom solutions to enable advanced rail passenger solutions.

“This contract award further deepens our partnership with the Victorian Government to deliver the rail transport priorities of the Victorian Government with leading rail industry partners. The Suburban Rail Loop solutions Alstom will provide draw from a range of our leading global technologies across rolling stock, signalling and services, complemented by our local know-how in Victoria, which uniquely we bring to our customers.”

Pascal Dupond, Managing Director, Alstom Australia and New Zealand