Rotterdam extend Citadis fleet

RET, the public transport operator of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, announced today that Alstom has been selected to supply 53 Citadis tramway train sets, worth over €100m.

Delivery is scheduled for mid-2009 and will proceed at a rate of four train sets per month.

The tramways will be manufactured at Alstom’s facility in La Rochelle, France. The contract should be signed in October 2007.

In 2000, Rotterdam was one of the first Citadis customers, ordering 60 tramway train sets for its “Tram-plus” network. The last tramway train sets from this first order entered service in December 2004.

The new Citadis fleet, with 30m long, low-floor cars, will run on the inner-city network and will replace Duewag ZGT trams which have been in service for 25 years.

When all the tramway train sets have been delivered, Rotterdam will have a fleet of 113 Citadis tramways, making it the largest Citadis operator in the world.