Dutch rail operator NS has confirmed Alstom as the winner of an €800 million contract for up to 79 new intercity trains.
The trains, which will have a maximum operating speed of 200 km/h, will be based on Alstom’s Coradia platform and will operate services on the the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Breda line and on the Den Haag-Eindhoven route.
Alstom will begin delivering the new fleet from January 2020. The multi-system EMUs will be able to run under both the 25 kV AC overhead lines of the high-speed network and the 1.5 kV DC of the conventional rail network.
Sites around Europe will be involved in the production of the new units. Engineers in Saint-Ouen, France, and Salzgitter, Germany, will design the new trains, while Alstom’s Katowice factory in Poland will build them.
The fleet will be broken down into 49 five-car and 30 eight-car trains – although the contract includes options for additional units.
Roel Okhuijsen, NS programme director for the procurement of new rolling stock, said: “Proven technology and at the same time a train that is ready for the future. That is in short what Alstom is offering us and our travellers.
We very much look forward to the cooperation in the coming years. From now on we need to push this project forward together with Alstom because we have an ambitious planning and a lot has to be done.
“The new Intercity trains are necessary for the replacement of existing materiel and for expanding the services.”
The new fleet, which will equate to around 25,000 seats, will gradually replace the existing ICM and IC Direct units.
