The battle was tough, but CAF, Alstom and the RATP / SNCF Voyageurs and Île-de-France Mobilités consortium have finally reached an agreement to honor the market for new RERB trains.
Suspended since the takeover of Bombardier by Alstom at the end of January, the market for the future RER B, won a few days earlier by the CAF-Bombardier consortium, can finally be launched. As a reminder, this is the supply of 146 new MI20 trains which will replace the MI79 and MI84 type trainsets currently in use on the RER B line. Enough to modernize the second busiest line in Europe, after the RER A.
The epilogue of a long negotiation between CAF and the RATP / SNCF Voyageurs and Île-de-France Mobilités consortium, on the one hand, and Alstom, on the other. The latter, an unsuccessful candidate for this call for tenders against CAF, having indeed opposed the commitment made by Bombardier before its takeover. After a final meeting between the different parties on April 13, the agreement was ratified yesterday during the board of directors of Ile-de-France Mobilités. Competitors on the call for tenders, CAF and Alstom are therefore now partners for the execution of the contract.
The RATP / SNCF Voyageurs and Ile-de-France Mobilités consortium declares, via a press release, to be delighted “that the Alstom-Bombardier / CAF consortium is definitively committed to the execution of the MI20 contract which was notified to it on February 5, 2021 The discussions that have taken place for several weeks have enabled the new Alstom-Bombardier group to take note of the terms of the contract and to raise their concerns, henceforth allowing the Alstom-Bombardier / CAF consortium to engage in the execution of the contract on the basis of of the notified market “. Indeed, the terms of the contract remain unchanged, including as regards the price and the schedule. That is a market of 2.5 billion euros. As for the delivery of the first train, it is scheduled for the end of 2025.
If the management of CAF did not wish to comment on the facts, we know that this agreement was more than expected on the side of the CAF bagnéraise plant where recruitment has already started. “By 2024, the workforce should rise to at least 450 employees, against 160 today and 90 two years ago. Not to mention the repercussions for local subcontractors. This is the result of a long work since 2014 when I was elected mayor of Bagnères “, welcomes the now deputy of Hautes-Pyrénées, Jean-Bernard Sempastous. “Already in 2017, I worked on the Intercités market, won by CAF. For the RER B, I spoke a lot with Bruno Le Maire. I did my job as a deputy and I am proud of the result. also shows that we have technicians capable of manufacturing trains. This is the market of the century, a great challenge for the region. I also asked the prefect to work on a support plan for employment to ensure that the jobs created will benefit the territory, ”he said.
And if it highlights the investments made by CAF on its site in Bagnérais (5 M € in 2019, 1.5 M € in 2020 and as much in 2021) “to respond to the French market and build an innovative benchmark railway site on the territory of industry Lacq-Pau-Tarbes-Bagneres-de-Bigorre “, the deputy also says he is” optimistic for the rapid renovation of the railway, scheduled for January 1, 2023 “.
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