Alstom is to carry out the renewal and automation of the Marseille metro system in a project financed by Métropole Aix-Marseille-Provence. As part of this contract (worth some 430 million euros), Alstom will develop, supply and install the automatic operating system for the network’s two lines.

The company will also commission 38 new four-car rubber-tyred metro trains and modernise all the audiovisual passenger information inside the stations.

The new trains are scheduled to enter service in early 2024. They will run in semi-automatic mode with drivers until mid-2025 on line M2 and until 2026 on line M1, before switching to full automation. Each train will be 65m long and carry up to 500 passengers.

The new metros for Marseille will be environment-friendly and designed to be 96% recoverable at the end of their life-span. They will consume 25% less energy than the metros currently in service, thanks (in particular) to ‘electric braking’ and LED lighting, as well as ‘other optimisations’.

In total, more than 400 people in France will work on this project, which will see Alstom (www.alstom.com) draw on the skills of six of its French sites: Aix-en-Provence (for the project management); Valenciennes (for the design, interior layout, assembly, tests and validation of the trains); Ornans (for the power units); Le Creusot (for the bogies); Villeurbanne (for the on-board electronics, passenger information, predictive maintenance and signalling system equipment); and Saint-Ouen (for the co-ordination of the design, development and integration of the signalling system).