Alstom to provide signaling tech to MBTA

Alstom

Alstom will provide new signaling technology for use on the Red and Orange Lines of the Boston subway system, as the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) looks to improve service.

News of the technology deal, valued at $90 million, comes several months after the MBTA awarded a $217.7 million design/build project to upgrade signals on the lines to Barletta Heavy Division.

Under the terms of the arrangement, Alstom will replace the MBTA’s existing relay-based train control on the two lines with Alstom’s iVPI (integrated vital processor interlocking), a form of microprocessor-based train control interlocking. In addition, Alstom will provide its new Model 5F wayside switch machines and LED signal upgrades to the Southwest corridor of the Orange line, as well as a new, fully wired central instrument houses at Ashmont station and Columbia Junction on the Red line. Alstom will also provide both the Red and Orange Lines with AFTC5 track circuits.

Alstom, headquartered in Saint-Ouen, France, is a major player in signals technology in rail systems across the globe. Barletta Heavy is part of a family-owned group of businesses based in Canton, Mass. It has done substantial work in the past for the MBTA, including replacement of the Woodrow Avenue Bridge.