Contracts awarded for Ecuador’s first tram system

Ecuador’s third largest city, Cuenca, has awarded construction contracts for the country’s very first light rail network.

A French consortium including Alstom, CIM, TSO and Ineco has won the $143 million contract to design and commission the new system.

Alstom will build 14 new catenary-free trams, as well as supply the electrification systems.

A catenary-free system was chosen to protect the historical features of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Michel Boccaccio, senior vice president of Alstom Transport in Latin America, said: “This project and our Citadis will improve the urban mobility of Cuenca, home to about 500,000 inhabitants, with one of the cleanest, most efficient and most comfortable means of public transportation. It is also an opportunity to show other Latin American countries that similar projects can be developed in their cities.”

Alstom said the $232 million project, which is set to open in 2015, is ‘mainly financed by the French Treasury through the ECR (Emerging Country Reserve) loan scheme’.




Continue reading...