AnsaldoBreda signs contract for the automatic metro of
Riyadh
AnsaldoBreda, a Finmeccanica
company, as part of a temporary consortium formed with Ansaldo STS,
also part of the Finmeccanica Group, has signed a contract worth a
total of €218m with SBG, the General Contractor, to design, build
and put into service the automatic metro system for the “Princess
Noura Bint Abdulrahman University for Women” of Riyadh, in Saudi
Arabia.
AnsaldoBreda will supply a total
of 22 two-carriage trains with an aluminium structure and
driverless automatic system. Its share of the contract is worth a
total of €69m.
The trains - 28.7 metres long and
2.65 metres wide and with four wide doors each side to enable
passengers to board and alight quickly and easily - will be
equipped with state-of-the-art vibration and noise reduction
systems to provide maximum comfort for passengers. The vehicles
will have also full air conditioning and advanced passenger safety
systems. Each train will be able to carry 143 passengers, including
24 seated.
The contract was signed at the
stand of Finmeccanica at the Le Bourget Air Show in Paris, in the
presence of Pier Francesco Guarguaglini, Chairman and CEO
Finmeccanica, Sheikh Bakr Binladin, Chairman of SBG, Salvatore
Bianconi, CEO of AnsaldoBreda, and Sergio De Luca, CEO of Ansaldo
STS.
This order from SBG, Saudi
Arabia’s most prestigious construction company, is further
confirmation of the expertise of the two Italian companies,
especially in the field of driverless metro systems.
AnsaldoBreda and Ansaldo STS have
already built the Copenhagen automatic metro, which has been in
operation since 2002 and won the title of metro of the year in
2008. They are currently building automatic metro systems in Italy
(Brescia, Milan (line 5) and Rome (line C)) and abroad
(Thessaloniki, and the Circular Line in Taipei).
For further information, please contact
Andrew
Taylor.