Statement on Florida TGV

Jeb Bush, the new Governor of Florida, today announced a
change in the State of Floridas transport policy,
entailing the cancellation of funding for the franchise awarded
in 1996 by the States Ministry of Transport to the
Florida Overland Express (FOX) consortium.

The members of the FOX consortium - Fluor Daniel of
California, Bombardier and ALSTOM - have scrupulously respected
the terms of the contract with the State of Florida,
particularly those concerning schedules for the engineering
studies and the initial authorised budget. Moreover, they have
worked effectively at federal level in order to obtain
financial support from Washington, and last year the American
Government approved legislation awarding financial support of
up to a third of the projects cost, a sum equivalent to
approximately $2 billion.

FOX obtained the franchise following a public tender
process, which resulted from the continued support of
Floridas last four Governors for a transport policy that
responds better to the needs of Floridas rapidly growing
population and developments in the tourist industry, whilst
respecting the States fragile environment. FOX was
appointed to the projects public/private partnership to
develop a TGV link between Miami, Orlando and Tampa. The civil
engineering work was due to begin in the year 2000, with
commercial operation scheduled for 2006.

ALSTOM would have supplied the signalling, locomotives,
bogies and propulsion system for the 18 TGV trainsets. The
finalisation of the contract was not envisaged before the
beginning of 2002. ALSTOM underlines that the project is not
included in the order book.

ALSTOM has a strong presence in the North American rail
transport sector. The Company recently won orders for the
Chicago and New York subways, the New Jersey Transit and the
refurbishment of Amtrak locomotives. The Company, in
association with Bombardier, is also supplying Amtrak with
high-speed trainsets (250 km/h) for the Washington-New
York-Boston rail link. ALSTOM's position in the American
transport market was further strengthened by the recent
acquisition of signalling specialist GRS.