First very high speed line in Latin America : Argentina
chooses Alstom-led consortium

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This adjudication is a decisive step in the project, before
the finalisation and signature of the contract which is
scheduled in the next few months.



The line will link Buenos Aires and Cordoba, 710 km apart, in
three hours instead of the 14 hours the journey takes today. It
will be served by eight double deck very high speed trains,
each with a capacity of 500 passengers, operating nine return
trips every day at speeds of up to 320kph.



This turnkey project will involve the construction of the
infrastructure, including 7 stations and 780 kilometers of
tracks, electrification, signalling (ERTMS level 2), the supply
of rolling stock and maintenance. Alstom, the consortium
leader, will undertake the overall management and engineering
of the project, the supply of rolling stock, signalling,
communication systems, electrification and maintenance. The
trains will be manufactured at Alstom’s French plants and
assembled at the Alstom site at La Plata, in the province of
Buenos Aires. IECSA will be in charge of civil works with
Isolux Corsan and EMEPA will participate in the construction of
the tracks with Alstom.



“The Buenos Aires-Rosario-Cordoba line constitutes the
largest very high speed rail project since the KTX project in
Korea. It represents an essential component in the economic
development of Argentina, underlines Philippe Mellier,
President of Alstom Transport. This order confirms
Alstom’s leadership in very high speed. Since the launch
of the first TGVTM in 1981, Alstom has gained unrivalled
experience: 70% of the trains in service in the world which
travel at more than 300 kph have been built by Alstom. They
have covered over 2.8 billion kilometres (6,500 times the
distance between the earth and the moon), carried 1.6 billion
passengers and achieved two world rail speed records - 515.3
kph in 1990 and 574.8 kph in 2007.