On Monday, the European Metropolis of Lille (MEL) filed a request for interim relief before the administrative court against the railway equipment manufacturer Alstom. This procedure takes place as part of the contract to double the capacity of the Lille metro, won by Alstom in 2012, the commissioning of which, initially planned for 2016, has been delayed several times. The MEL also intends to initiate other proceedings against the company, in particular to request compensation for the delay, estimated at ten years by the community. This Tuesday, Alstom declared itself “surprised” by the legal proceedings initiated by the MEL, ensuring that it had “demonstrated the operation of its automatic metro system”.
In its press release on Monday, the metropolis of Lille therefore returned to a contentious issue since 2016, the date on which Alstom should have put the new 52-meter trainsets of the Lille automatic metro into service. The institution affirmed that the last tests of the autopilot, carried out last September, had been a failure and that it was not envisaged to put the system into service before 2026. That is to say a delay of ten years on the announced program.
A system that works according to Alstom
The railway manufacturer does not deny having fallen behind in this file at 266 million euros. On the other hand, Alstom “disputes the comments made by the MEL regarding the progress of the project”, denounces the company in a press release sent this Tuesday. Alstom thus claims to have “demonstrated the operation of its automatic metro system during the latest tests in Lille”. From a source close to the file, only one anomaly was noted during these tests, compared to a number of “65 blocking anomalies” put forward by the MEL.
Our source also states that the anomaly was noted “on a door opening” and that it was not the fault of Alstom. Rather encouraging results which allowed the manufacturer to consider commissioning the new system “in 2024” according to our source, and not in 2026 as estimated by the MEL.
In its official press release, Alstom assured that “the group will assert its rights within the framework of the new legal procedure announced”, claiming to be able to prove that its automatic pilot system was operational. According to our source close to the matter, it is now the length of the legal procedure which could have an impact on the commissioning of the new metro.