Malpensa express will travel with Alstom

A 29.1 million euros contract signed betweenn
Ferrovienord and Alstom to supply 6 regional trains Coradia for
Milano Malpensa airport link. The project involves Alstoms
Italian sites of Sesto San Giovanni (Milan), Savigliano (Cuneo)
and Bologna.

Milan, 15 May 2008 - FERROVIENORD, a company
of FNM Group (the main railway company in Lombardy) has chosen
Alstom to supply 6 new regional trains intended to boost the
Malpensa Express service, the only railway link between Milan and
Malpensa intercontinental airport. The first application contract
is worth 29.1 million euros and is part of a framework agreement
foreseeing the possibility for FERROVIENORD to extend the supply
up to 30 new trains. The financing of the project is part of the
730 million euros allocated by Lombardy Region since 2001, to
renew the fleet managed by FNM Group. The delivery of the 6
Coradia is scheduled for February 2010.


Luigi Legnani, CEO of FERROVIENORD, while expressing his
satisfaction for the signature of the contract, underlined that
the new train, besides empowering our offer for Malpensa,
will allow us to progressively move to the regional service the 6
existing TAF trains (High-Capacity Trains) currently in service
on the airport link.

The tender was launched by FERROVIENORD in
August 2007 and offers were submitted by Alstom, CAF and Stadler.
The contract was assigned in February 2008 to Alstom, that
offered a train made up of four railcars, which is an evolution
of the Alstom Coradia CTR, supplied in hundreds of units to
Trenitalia and other railway operators.

This new contract strengthens the role
of Alstom in Lombardy, Paolo Covoni, General Manager of
Alstom Ferroviaria, has stated a region where the company
is currently working on two major projects for Milans
underground system: signalling enhancement of Line 1 and the
implementation of the electric supply system, of the traction
systems and of the platform guard system for the new Line 5.
Alstom plays a leading role also from an industrial point of
view, thanks to the site in Sesto San Giovanni, which is
Alstoms worldwide centre of excellence for traction
systems and employs some 470 people and covers an area of 49,000
m2.

The new multiple-unit trains are an evolution
of the successful Alstom Coradia family, which is used throughout
Italy, from Trento to Bari, with 272 operating trains overall.
Designed to respond the increased demand for mobility in Lombardy
from and to the city of Milan, the new train is 67.55 m long and
2.9 m wide. It has 180 seats and its maximum speed is 160
km/h.

The train design is based on new comfort,
safety and accessibility standards. As doors are at the same
level as railway platforms, passengers can easily enter railcars.
In addition, retractable platforms installed on each door remedy
the gap between the train and station platforms, allowing also
passengers with reduced mobility to easily enter the train. Every
train consists of four railcars, i.e. motorised end cars and two
intermediate trailer cars. A luggage area has been designed in
every railcar. Trains are provided with many on-board services:
video surveillance system to prevent assaults, internal lighted
displays for information visible from anywhere in the train,
audio system, information in Braille, 220 V sockets for mobile
phones and laptops. Les trains de la gamme Coradia
sinscrivent dans la démarche environnementale
menée par Alstom et sont recyclables à 95 %. La
motorisation répartie optimise également le freinage et
laccélération de chaque voiture, permettant de
diminuer le niveau de consommation dénergie.

Three are the Alstom Italian sites
involved in designing and manufacturing the train. The site in
Savigliano (Cuneo) will be responsible for project development,
for some of the manufacturing of the trains and homologation
activities. The site in Sesto San Giovanni (Milan) will design
and manufacture traction systems and auxiliary converters. The
site in Bologna will instead be responsible for on-board
signalling systems.

Main characteristics