(AFP / GUILLAUME SOUVANT)
Ile-de-France Mobilités (IDFM) has notified the order for 35 additional trains from Alstom for line E of the RER, which is due to extend to Nanterre at the beginning of June.
This order, worth 650 million euros excluding taxes, “aims to anticipate and ensure the offer for the extension of the line to Mantes-la-Jolie at the end of 2026”, indicates IDFM in a press release on Wednesday.
131 “new generation” (NG) trainsets had already been ordered out of a total of 250 planned. Some have been running since November 2023 on line E.
This new train, intended to improve punctuality and passenger comfort, must replace all RERs in circulation on lines D and E by 2028.
It is particularly expected on the RER D, one of the two “sick lines” in the Paris region with the RER B, where delays and train cancellations are more frequent than elsewhere. The first RER NG must be delivered there at the end of 2024.
Other RERs will be ordered “soon” to complete the line D fleet and “ensure the increased supply planned to the east and west of line E”, IDFM said on Wednesday.
The regional transport authority asked its service provider SNCF Voyageurs and the manufacturer Alstom to “plan now” the delivery of these trains, and to “respect the delivery and commissioning schedules”, while the first RER NG were delivered two years late.
The RER NG consumes 25% less electricity than its predecessors, according to Alstom, and each train can carry between 1,500 and 1,800 people.
Its acceleration and braking capacity is better suited to mass transport and its doors, wider than those of other trains, should improve punctuality by facilitating descents and ascents during stops in dense areas, according to the manufacturer.