• The Linewide Alliance comprising RATP Dev, John Holland, Alstom, KBR and WSP has been confirmed by the Suburban Rail Loop Authority (SRLA) to deliver the Linewide contract for Suburban Rail Loop East (SRL East) in Melbourne, with trains taking passenger services from 2035.
• When SRL East opens, the operations and maintenance of the new metro services will be delivered by the TransitLinX joint venture between RATP Dev and John Holland for a 15-year franchise from 2035.
• The award grows RATP Dev’s Australian footprint and confirms its leadership in driverless metro operations, with 14 lines due under operation worldwide from 2027 including the 23-km long automated Sydney Metro - Western Sydney Airport line.
A multi-stage integrated transport, planning and housing project, this first stage of the Suburban Rail Loop will see 26 kilometres of twin tunnels connecting six new underground stations. SRL East will make it faster and easier to move across Melbourne, connecting major universities, hospitals, entertainment and shopping destinations.
Under the Project Alliance Agreement, SRLA will partner with the Linewide Alliance over the course of a 10-year contract from 2025 comprising tunnel fit-out, track, power supply, systems and rolling stock, depot and maintenance facilities, and to assume the overall responsibility for systems integration of all SRL East packages. During the delivery phase, RATP Dev will lead as Operator Non-Owner Participant in a joint-venture with John Holland, thereby ensuring an operator-led design solution at each phase of the project.
From 2035, the TransitLinX joint venture composed of RATP Dev and John Holland will operate and maintain Victoria’s first turn-up-and-go driverless system (including train and station operations and maintenance, centralised control, security and asset management) for a 15-year franchise agreement.
Hiba Farès, CEO of RATP Dev, said: “This award is a new milestone for our group’s high-capacity urban rail activities both in Australia and across our worldwide footprint in 16 countries. We couldn’t be prouder to contribute our savoir-faire in designing, operating and maintaining the world’s most complex urban rail systems to a project which will generate thousands of jobs in Victoria as well as extensive opportunities for more homes and economic activity, social and environmental benefits across the state.”
Bringing leadership in driverless metro operations to a growing Australian footprint
In December 2022, RATP Dev was awarded the contract to operate and maintain the Sydney Metro - Western Sydney Airport line for 15 years as part of the Parklife Metro consortium. With the SRL East award, RATP Dev is setting the pace in bringing world-class driverless metro systems to the residents and visitors of Australia’s two largest cities. Worldwide, RATP Dev operates and maintains 7 railway lines, 40 tram lines and 29 metro lines including 14 driverless GoA4 metro lines.
Mehdi Sinaceur, Deputy CEO of RATP Dev said: “With responsibility for almost 500 km of fully and semi-automatic metro operations worldwide, we lead the field in automated metro projects including management of lines within the world’s longest existing and future networks in Riyadh, Paris, Singapore and Sydney. In Melbourne, we’re looking forward to drawing on the technical savoir-faire of RATP’s 2,000 in-house experts who are setting the pace around the world in automated metros. Whether it’s getting 100 million users of Riyadh’s state-of-the-art metro from A to B in its first year of operation or simultaneously extending and re-automating the Paris region’s 30-kilometre north-south line 14 metro on-time for the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics, our teams go from strength to strength in offering ever more efficient and attractive mobility services to our passengers and public transport authority partners.”