Multinational rolling stock producer Alstom is building a new depot in the centre of Bucharest, where it plans to carry out train maintenance works for the Railway Reform Authority (ARF), Gian Luca Erbacci, Alstom's president for Europe, told News.ro.

"In order to carry out the maintenance of the [37] trains that we will deliver to ARF, we are investing in a new depot that will be in the centre of Bucharest," he said.

The contract was signed in March 2022 when 20 InterRegio trains were purchased, and it was extended with additional 17 units. The first units of the total order of 37 trains are in production at the factory in Poland.

The first part of the investment in the depot will be ready at the beginning of next year. But the complete structure will be fully completed in 2025 when the company will begin the delivery of trains, which are now already under construction.

Alstom will also supply 13 new Metropolis trains for the 5th Line of the Bucharest subway system, under a contract of over EUR 100 million, with the option of delivering 17 more trains in the future.

Alstom has been active in Romania since 1994 and currently has over 1,200 employees in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca and Brasov.

The company has been providing for almost 20 years the maintenance of the Bucharest metro train fleet. In addition, it has numerous railway rehabilitation projects underway for the Romanian railway company CFR.

iulian@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: J P | Dreamstime.com)