France: Alstom Inaugurates the Regiolis After-Sales Service Premises in Metz
Alstom’s after-sales service premises for Regiolis that will circulate in the Lorraine Region were inaugurated Sept. 5 at the SNCF Technicentre in Metz.
The event was attended by Patrick Hatzig, vice-president of the Lorraine Region in charge of mobility, Alain Autruffe, SNCF Lorraine regional manager, and Jérôme Wallut, managing director of Alstom Transport France. The after-sales service centre is intended to support the delivery of the first Regiolis train for the Lorraine Region in late September.
The after-sales service team in Metz is made up of four technicians experienced in mechanics, electronics and IT. Today it is using its skills to serve the SNCF and the Lorraine Region in two main assignments: the first is to train SNCF agents to drive the Regiolis and prepare them to obtain their commercial operation authorisation from the Public Office of Rail Safety (Etablissement Public de Sécurité Ferroviaire, EPSF). The second assignment will involve corrective maintenance of equipment once the trainsets have been commissioned throughout the warranty period.
After-sales service is part of a new Alstom solution called PMCO1 - an integrated fleet support tool intended to optimise the maintenance and availability of the Regiolis trains from Alstom’s Coradia range that will circulate in France. In addition to the team of technicians at customer depots, the After-Sales Service is equipped with a dedicated parts warehouse and Alstom TrainTracer software, which monitors train condition in real time and anticipates eventual maintenance operations to be carried out. The aim of the PMCO’s tool is to guarantee a high degree of reliability and fleet availability.
To conduct maintenance operations, the team is supplied in less than 24 hours with replacement parts from the Metz warehouse, which has an inventory intended to cover the needs of the Lorraine Region, as well as parts and maintenance tools from the central warehouse located at the Alstom site in Reichshoffen. With a surface area of 700 square meters, this warehouse groups centralises more 1,300 references and 14,000 Regiolis train parts.
The Lorraine Region ordered 10 Regiolis trainsets from Alstom’s Coradia range. The hybrid trains are 72 metres long and operate at two difference voltages. They are equipped with station systems to guide people with visual impairments using a solution developed by the Nancy-based company Phitech, a system to count passengers, spaces for bicycles, etc. The first Regiolis trains will be commissioned in 2014.