<span class="" id="parent-fieldname-description"> Alstom has been awarded a contract by the Victorian Government to supply another eight XâTrapolis trainsets for Melbourneâs metropolitan rail network. </span> <p>The 2013-14 Victorian budget allocated $176.1m for the new trains, composed of six-cars each, along with supporting infrastructure. Track, signalling, power, and maintenance facility upgrades will enable the X’Trapolis trains to run for the first time on Melbourne’s Frankston, Werribee and Willimaston lines.</p><p>The additional trains will add to Melbourne’s existing fleet of 74 (444 cars) X’Trapolis trains.</p><p>The trains will be delivered from Alstom’s Ballarat manufacturing centre which recently delivered seven X’Trapolis trains within budget and two months ahead of schedule.<br /><br />Alstom is currently investing over $8m to upgrade and expand the site, which the company says supports the government’s commitment to local manufacturing with 65 new jobs and apprenticeships. The investment will see a flow-on effect for Victorian component suppliers and service companies, with an additional 70 jobs created along the supply chains.</p><p>Victorian transport minister Terry Mulder said the government was making an historic investment in the state’s transprort fleet.</p><p>“The government now has 40 new VLoocity carriages on order for the regional network, 15 X’Trapolis trains for the metropolitan network, delivering 50 new trams and is undertaking detailed planning for future high capacity trains, building network capacity for years to come,” Mulder said.<br /> </p>
