The trains, part of a contract signed on 27 October 2009 with SNCF and financed by the French regions, will operate in the Basse Normandie and Haute Normandie regions of France.
The initial contract consisted of a first tranche totalling €800m for the supply of 100 Coradia Polyvalent trains. In January 2010, an optional tranche for 19 trains, worth around €130m, had already been exercised.
Deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2013 and end in mid-2015. Eventually up to 1,000 Coradia Polyvalent trains may be ordered, for a total of more than €7bn.
The train will be entirely designed, manufactured and assembled in Alstom Transport facilities in France.
The Coradia Polyvalent can travel at speeds of up to 160kmh in its electric and hybrid versions and operates at two different voltages (25kV and 1,500V). It is also available in a trans-border version for operation on the German and Swiss rail networks at a voltage of 15kV.
April 1886: the Brunkebergs tunnel
First ever example of a ground source heat pump?