Hitachi Rail and Italian network manager and maintainer Ferrovienord have signed a third supply contract worth €451,850,000 for 50 high-capacity Caravaggio regional trains.
The deal, which is for 40 long-configuration trains and 10 short, was reached as part of a 2018 Framework Agreement.
The signing of this third supply contract is part of the Lombardy Region Plan for fleet renewal that sees a total of 222 new trains delivered for an overall investment of €1.958 billion. A €1.607 billion portion of the plan was approved in 2017, and updated in 2019, for 176 trains, out of which 105 were high capacity. This was, in March 2021, followed by a purchase worth €351 million for a further 46 trains – 26 high capacity Caravaggio trains (10 in long configuration for the Malpensa airport shuttle service and 16 in short configuration for Bergamo airport shuttle service) as well as 20 Donizetti medium capacity trains.
Delivery of this third supply contract is scheduled from October 2022 to October 2024. The trains will be built in Hitachi Rail’s factories in Reggio Calabria and Naples.
In a statement, the President of Lombardy Region, Attilio Fontana, and the city council member for Infrastructure, Transport & Sustainable Mobility, Claudia Maria Terzi, said: “The regional investments are gradually taking place: 36 new trains purchased by Lombardy Region are already in operation on the Lombardy rail network. When the overall delivery plan is completed, the trains in service will be – on average – 12 years old, the lowest level ever reached in Lombardy.
“The aim is to make rail transport more efficient. Offering brand new, state-of-the-art trains means improving passengers travel experience and all the efforts made by the Region are going in this direction.”
“The introduction of our modern train fleets in Lombardy is a reason of great pride for our business, and we’re delighted with this new order,” said Andrea Pepi, Hitachi’s head of sales and projects, Italy. “With our trains we aim to increase sustainable mobility by providing attractive products that encourage people to switch from private car to public transport in line with our decarbonization strategy.”
