Alstom participates in the opening of the southern extension of the Strasbourg tramway to Illkirch and prepares access to Germany

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Alstom participated in the opening of the southern extension of the Strasbourg tramway at Illkirch on 14 January 2016. Alstom’s Infrastructure teams carried out the studies and installed the overhead contact line over the two kilometres of double track that make up the extension of Line A. 

Twelve people (construction manager, site manager, machines operator, six assemblers and three workers) worked on the line for a period of six months. The Alstom teams are now focusing on installing the overhead contact line for the extension of Line D towards Kehl and on laying 300 metres of rail track on the Rhine bridge planned between March and May 2016.

Alstom is a privileged partner of CTS (Compagnie des Transports Strasbourgeois) for the development of the tramway network, both in terms of infrastructure and rolling stock. In 2013, Alstom conducted the studies and installed the overhead contact lines for the extension of lines A and D at Hautepierre, representing 2.3 kilometres. Alstom’s Infrastructure teams also renewed the Kevlar fibres on the 2.3 kilometres of line at Hautepierre in 2013, and on the 5.4 kilometres of lines A and E in consortium with Colas Rails en 2015.

Developing the tramway network also means extending the rolling stock fleet. Alstom supplied 41 Citadis trams to CTS between 2005 and 2007, and signed a new contract in 2014 for 12 extra trams, for which the first deliveries should begin in summer 2016. They will serve the Illkirch-Graffenstaden town centre and will also circulate on the cross-border line linking the centre of Strasbourg to Kehl in Germany. This tramway will be the first in France to cross a border.