Austrian Railways ÖBB (Österreichische Bundesbahnen) selected Alstom Transport to equip 449 vehicles (locomotives and cars) with its European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS)-based train control solution, ATLAS. The contract is worth about $129 million.

The solution will be first adapted for ÖBB by Alstom in its site located in Charleroi, Belgium. Its components will be produced in Alstom sites located in Vlleurbanne, France, and Verona, Italy. The solution will then be installed by ÖBB Technical Services in its workshops in Vienna and Linz, Austria. Deployment of ATLAS solution starts in 2010, with the project to be finalized in 2014.

Additionally, Alstom will implement its on-board Specific Transmission Module solution (STM). This solution will enable vehicles to run in neighbor countries with their national train control system without traffic interruption.

Three types of vehicles will be equipped: 332 Taurus locomotives (class 1016/1116), 50 multi-system locomotives (class 1216) and 67 railjet control-cars (class 8090).

Austria is a core market for ETCS (European Train Control System), as a large part of European transit traffic runs through the country. The vehicles should not only take up service in Austria (on a part of the European Freight Corridor B under ETCS Level 2 supervision), but also in the neighboring countries of Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Hungary (on one line using ETCS Level 1) as well as in other East-European countries wehre they run in cross border traffic.

Once the project is fully implemented, ÖBB will operate one of the largest vehicle fleets equipped with ETCS Level 2.