The first five trains for Geneva’s new cross-border CEVA (Cornavin‒Eaux-Vives‒Annemasse) line have been delivered to the SNCF depot in Annemasse.
The new trains are from Alstom’s Coradia Polyvalent range and are the first of a fleet of 17 trains that have been ordered by SNCF, but financed entirely by the region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, to run on the Léman Express, Europe’s largest cross-border rail network (45 stations, 230 km).
Five trains will now be delivered each month until the end of November, with entry into commercial service scheduled for 15 December 2019. Drivers for the new trains have been undergoing training since mid-August.
The first trains were loco hauled to Annemasse. Freight wagons at each end both acted as converters for the differing couplings on the loco and the EMU, and supplied braking for the consist as the new Coradia Polyvalent trains were unpowered and therefore had no working brakes.
Since mid-August, Alstom’s teams have been supporting SNCF in training drivers for these new trains.
To date, a total of 348 trains in Alstom’s Coradia range have been sold to nine French regions as part of the contract awarded to Alstom by SNCF in October 2009. The fleet has already covered more than 50 million kilometres in commercial service.
The 17 trains for the Franco-Swiss CEVA cross-border line are 72 metres long and can carry up to 204 seated passengers at speeds of up to 140km/h. They are fitted with ERTMS technology and can operate under 25kV 50Hz, 15kV 16.7Hz and 1500V DC electrification.
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