By Anna Peverieri
(Reuters) -France’s national railway operator Transilien SNCF Voyageurs is suspending deliveries of new trains for Paris’ RER system from train maker Alstom SA, citing high failure rates and poor manufacturing, it said on Monday.
Shares in Alstom were down 5.5% by 1547 GMT. The company told Reuters recent disruptions on the RER E line cannot be attributed solely to the train.
The orders were part of a framework agreement signed in 2017 between SNCF Voyageurs and Alstom, under which 166 RER New Generation trains have so far been ordered.
“The failure rate for Alstom’s RER New Generation trainsets remains well above target,” Transilien SNCF Voyageurs told Reuters in an emailed statement.
“The poor manufacturing quality observed on the newly delivered trainsets is having too great an impact on the quality of the service… on the E line of the RER,” Transilien said.
However, Alstom told Reuters that “since December, several outages have occurred as a result of ‘jamming’, linked to excess grease spread by the lubrication systems on line E”.
The grease used on the new RER trains does not interact well with that used on the previous equipment, the French trainmaker added.
The suspension of Alstom deliveries will remain in place until contractual targets have been met, Transilien added.
Alstom said it was working in “close collaboration” with SNCF to resolve the issues.
SNCF Voyageurs has put in place a temporary solution, the train maker said, and they are now discussing a permanent one.
The national rail operator ordered an additional 35 RER NG trains from Alstom last December in a deal worth nearly 520 million euros ($562.59 million).
($1 = 0.9243 euros)
(Reporting by Anna Peverieri; Editing by Richa Naidu and Jan Harvey)
