Statement from Henri Poupart-Lafarge, President of Alstom Transport

Alstom, like all rolling stock manufacturers, tests its trains to validate the technical solutions chosen and ensure manufacturing quality is up to the required standard. These tests are undertaken on specialised test tracks, like that near Valenciennes, or on dedicated sections of track which are kept strictly separate from the normal track. To this end, Alstom rented an 11km test track from RFF near Bar-le-Duc (in eastern France) to test its regional trains. Since the beginning of the year, this track has undergone a major upgrade to adapt it to this usage. It is managed by CEF, the railway test centre and a subsidiary of Alstom, which has a record of managing such infrastructures since 2000.

Today, an Alstom team working on the test track was hit by a trainset undergoing tests. This terrible accident caused the death of three of our colleagues. The circumstances of this tragedy have not yet been established. However, it should be underlined that the current information available indicates that the accident was not caused by technical reasons.

In these circumstances, my thoughts are with the families, friends and Alstom colleagues affected by this terrible accident and I send them my deepest and most heartfelt condolences.

Henri Poupart-Lafarge, President of Alstom Transport, went to the accident site and this afternoon, met the employees who worked with the three victims and who are deeply shocked.

Press contact

Stéphane Farhi - Tel +33 1 41 49 33 08
stephane.farhi@chq.alstom.com