The two contracts were signed by Asocierea RailWorks consortium, consisting of Alstom and Romanian civil works company Arcada, with CFR SA, the Romanian state rail infrastructure operator.
Alstom will provide state-of-the-art digital train control, traffic management solutions and electrification infrastructure and Arcada will carry out all the civil works. The implementation period for each contract is 42 months.
“These new contracts consolidate Alstom's leading position on the Romanian railway market, for both digital train control and electrification. In the recent years, Bucharest has become a strategic center for Alstom’s signaling expertise employing over 200 highly qualified engineers, whose expertise serves local projects, and international ones,” said Gabriel Stanciu, Alstom managing director for Romania, Bulgaria, and the Republic of Moldova.
The two contracts cover the modernization of 66km of double railway line between Cluj Napoca and Poieni (30 km for Cluj Napoca – Aghireș and 36km for Aghireș-Poieni). It includes electrification, infrastructure, and superstructure modernization, signaling and telecommunication systems, as well as civil works.
Alstom will directly oversee the ERTMS Level 2 deployment, implementation of the traffic control solution, the digital interlocking and passenger information systems, as well as electrification works including power supply and overhead contact line. The modernization will enable the speed of 160 km/h for passenger trains and 120km/h for freight.
For the electrification works, Alstom will supply two Traction Power Stations and its OCS3 catenary solution for main lines, leveraging its in-house capabilities at the manufacturing facility in Lecco, Italy, and its worldwide experience of OCS3 in commercial operation.
Alstom has been active in Romania for almost 30 years and is a market leader in railway electrification and signaling solutions. The company is responsible for implementing signaling or electrification solutions on more than 75% of the Northern branch of the Rhine-Danube railway corridor in Romania. The first CBTC urban signaling solution in the country is under implementation by Alstom on Bucharest’s metro Line 5. The company has also been the provider of maintenance services for the Bucharest metro fleet for the past 18 years and a new long-term contract is in place, valid until 2036.