The Poitou-Charentes and Auvergne regions of France recently placed an order with Alstom Transport to supply 10 and 12 regional trains, respectively, from the Coradia Polyvalent range for some $166 million. The Auvergne region is already operating 37 regional Alstom trains and the Poitou-Charentes region is running 18 trains.

The order, which was booked in the third quarter of fiscal year 2010-2011, is part of the contract financed by the French regions and signed in Oct. 2009 with SNCF. The initial contract consisted of a first installment totaling $1 billion for the supply of 100 Coradia Polyvalent trains.

The two order options exercised in January and March 2010 brought the total number of trainsets ordered to 142 units. To date, 164 trainsets have been ordered and will be distributed among the regions of Alsace, Aquitaine, Auvergne, Basse-Normandie, Haute-Normandie, Lorraine, Midi-Pyrénées, Pays de la Loire, Picardie, Poitou-Charentes, and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. The total volume of trains may eventually reach 1,000 Coradia Polyvalent trains, for total orders of more than $9 billion.

The production delivery of the contract dated Oct. 2009 is currently ongoing. The first carriage frame is being finished at Alstom's plant in Reichshoffen, Alsace, and the first train will roll off the assembly line in June 2011. The deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2013 and end in mid-2015.

Coradia Polyvalent will be entirely designed, manufactured and assembled in Alstom Transport facilities in France and Belgium.