Alstom has presented the external and interior designs for the new rubber-tired metro trains it is building for Line 14 of the Paris Métro.
Each of the first 35 train sets being built by the manufacturer will have large, open entrance ways and “boomerang-shaped seats” to help boost capacity and reduce dwell times at stations.
Seven of Alstom’s 12 French site will contribute to the production of the new trains – the first call off of a €2 billion framework order placed last year for up to 217 new trains.
The new fleet, which is due to enter service from 2019, will serve lines 4, 11 and eventually 14 once it has been extended south of the Grand Paris Express to Orly. On Line 14, the new eight-car MP14 trains will replace the existing six-car vehicles.
Valérie Pécresse, president of the Regional Council of Ile-de-France and Council President of the STIF, said: “I am committed to carrying out a transport revolution through the renewal of 700 trainsets, including the RER, by 2021. I have not forgotten the metro.
“With MP14, over 200 train sets could be replaced for over 2 billion euros. This represents nearly one third of all the metros in Ile de France.
“The inhabitants of Ile de France will thus be able to ascertain the design quality of these new metros, particularly in 2019 on Line 14, then on the extension to Line 11 where the trains in circulation today were designed nearly 60 years ago.”
Images: Alstom/Design & Styling
