Rail industry buoyant in the Valenciennes region

Alstom’s plant at Petite-Forêt near Valenciennes designs and manufactures urban transport trainsets, trams, tram/trains and double-decke7/24/09 3:00 PMr carriages for regional train service. This center of excellence has a workforce of 1,350, with 530 in engineering. 2008 statistics show Alstom hired one employee for every working day, for a total of 220 jobs full year. In 2009, plans call for a further 100 hires, most in research and project development.

New orders include a contract from Paris urban transport authority RATP through a consortium set up with Bombardier (firm order for 60 trainsets, with an option for 70 more) for M109 double-decker trains to operate on Line A of the Paris RER network. Other contracts are for 36 Citadis trams and 20 Metropolis trainsets for the city of Istanbul; 49 automated MP05 trainsets and 161 MF 2000 trainsets for the RATP, and over 800 TER2NNG carriages and 31 tram-train trainsets, featuring the latest generation of hybrid urban transport technology developed by Alstom.

Bombardier’s site at Crespin employs 2,034, 26% of them supervisors and managers. Eighty managers will be recruited in 2009, after 212 in 2007 and 2008. Of new management staff, 70% are engineers and 30% are in support functions (finance, legal affairs, human resources, etc.). What with the big contract from RATP, the AGC, the M109, the TER2NNG and the MF 2000, production capacity is booked through to 2013.

Source: La Voix du Nord