Alstom (www.alstom.com) has delivered the first of 30 next-generation trains destined for automatic operation on line B of the Lyon metro network.

It arrived at La Poudrette depot on 25 April as planned, 30 months after the project was launched. Having undergone more than five months of tests at Valenciennes, where it covered 5,000km, this first train started dynamic night-time tests on the Lyon network at the end of May.

The trains — each is 36m long and can carry more than 300 passengers — are based on Alstom’s rubber-tyred metro design and benefit from the latest technological advances to increase their availability, operational flexibility and ease of maintenance.

They are equipped with Alstom’s Urbalis 400 system, already deployed on more than 1,000km of metro lines world-wide to enable automatic operation, without drivers.

‘Respectful of the environment’, the new trains are eco-designed and 96% recyclable; they are also equipped with a fully electric braking system, LED lighting and other features designed to reduce energy consumption by 25% compared to the trains currently in service.

Six of Alstom’s 13 sites in France are involved in the development and implementation of the Avenir Métro (Future Metro) programme: Valenciennes for the design, interior layout, assembly, testing and certification of the trains; Ornans for the motors; Le Creusot for the bogies; Tarbes for the traction system; Villeurbanne for the on-board electronics, passenger information systems, signalling equipment and operational maintenance of the automation equipment; and Saint-Ouen for the co-ordination of the design and development of the Urbalis signalling system.