RER

By 2017, after approval by the Board of Directors, some 130 MI09s will be deployed, raising capacity by 30% on RER line A in Île-de-France, which carries more than a million passengers a day on weekdays. These new trains illustrate our commitment and proactive investment strategy. Our engineering department compressed the acquisition, validation and commissioning leadtimes for the new rolling stock to the absolute minimum without jeopardising safety. The first ten MI09s came into service at end-December, just 30 months after the contract was signed.

Line A, with its 20% growth in passenger traffic over 10 years, has been a victim of its own success – the slightest incident can have an impact on service regularity. The time between trains during peak hours has been reduced to two minutes on the central section thanks to RATP’s automatic train control system. The MI09s are equipped with air-conditioning, onboard security cameras (62 per train), an audio visual public address system for announcing station arrivals and traffic disruptions, and 34 seats reserved for disabled people.

RATP is financing 66% of a first tranche of 60 trains (€917 million in total), and STIF the remainder. RATP will operate the line at least until 2039.