In a major breakthrough as a part of ‘Make in India’ campaign, coaches assembled in the nation will be running in the Sydney Metro line. Yes, this is a massive achievement for India and it also gives us a great feeling that our country-made coaches will be used in an abroad country.
The Australian city recently launched its first driverless metro line that will be operated by 22 Alstom six-coach trains. For the unversed, these trains were assembled in Andhra Pradesh which comes under the ‘Make in India initiative’.
Last year, in December 2018, Alstom delivered the last of the 22 Metropolis trains exclusively for Sydney Metro from Alstom’s Sri City facility in Andhra Pradesh.
The driverless Sydney Metro trains come with fully automated and comprises various modern features like LED lighting, emergency intercoms, CCTV cameras, real-time travel information, double-doors and much more.
In addition to that, the signalling system of Urbalis 400 cuts down the halt time at stations and also the time between each service.
As per Alstom’s press release, the company was handed a contract by North West Rail Link (NRT) to plan, design, manufacture, supply, test and commission 22 six-car Metropolis trains including Urbalis 400 signalling systems.
Alstom was also given the huge responsibility to manage the project. In addition, the company also won a 15-year maintenance contract for the trains, depot operations including the signalling systems.
In order to see through the contract, the firm’s engineering hub in Bengaluru followed Metropolis trains and the Urbalis 400 system for the Sydney Metro.
“Sydney has now joined other great cities of the world (including Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona and Singapore) that benefit every day from Alstom’s metro solutions. The fully automated driver-less metro is a first for Australia and will provide a step-change for the commuters of Sydney,” said Ling Fang who is the Senior Vice-President for Alstom in Asia-Pacific.