ALSTOM UBUNYE: Driving the Future of Sustainable Southern African Rail

“Leading societies to a low carbon future, Alstom develops and markets mobility solutions that provide the sustainable foundations for the future of transportation,” opens the worldwide rail transport giant, whose product portfolio ranges from high-speed trains, metros, monorail and trams to integrated systems, infrastructure and digital mobility solutions.

150,000 Alstom vehicles are in commercial service worldwide, while in excess of 70,000 employees occupy more than 250 strategic locations in 70 countries. According to Alstom Chairman and CEO Henri Poupart-Lafarge: “The role of Alstom is not only to provide rolling stock, services and maintenance but to offer mobility solutions to a world in profound transformation.

“Alstom is in excellent position to shape tomorrow’s mobility: efficient, sustainable and connected.”

 KEY SA PARTNER

In Southern Africa, Alstom is engaged as a long-term key partner in the continued revitalisation of the rail industry, providing transport solutions tailored to local needs and making notable contributions to the local economy.

In 2016 Alstom completed the acquisition of South African rail company Commuter Transport & Locomotive Engineering (CTLE). Based in the region of Ekurhuleni in Nigel, the resultant Alstom Ubunye boasts an 80,000m² manufacturing facility and has nearly 600 employees, 25% of which are women and more than 50% hailing from the local area.

“Through the acquisition and the formation of Alstom Ubunye,” the company declares, “Alstom strengthened its position as a South African key player with local partners, creating a stronger industrial and commercial base with the purpose to offer a complete portfolio including infrastructure, signalling, trains and components, as well as services to better address Southern Africa’s railway transport needs.”

Alstom Ubunye is one of four major joint ventures in which Alstom is the majority shareholder, with the group as a whole having grown significantly in recent months via another in the form of Bombardier Transportation’s rail business, Bernard Peille explains.

“It has really bolstered our presence in South Africa,” he says, “as we have gone from having 1,500 to nearly 1,900 people in the country.” A transformational step for Alstom, this marks the creation of a global mobility leader committed to responding to the increasing need of greener transportation worldwide.

“We are active in the whole South African railway industry and portfolio,” Peille clarifies. “We also have the significant partnership with Transnet Engineering, too, which forms our Bombela JV, and to date 70 locomotives have been delivered from this contract with the rest to follow by 2024.”

“By bringing its skills and infrastructure to South Africa, Alstom through its JVs is shaping the future of the country’s railway transport and is positioning itself as the country’s long-term partner,” Alstom says. “We are committed to contributing to South Africa’s infrastructural development by building the foundations of tomorrow’s railway transport.

“We are building trains in South Africa, for South Africans, with South Africans, creating jobs and investing in local communities. This South Africa industrial base will enable Alstom to better address mobility needs in Southern Africa and beyond. South Africa could thus become a real railway leader for the whole African continent.”

GIBELA JOINT VENTURE

Peille goes on to describe the fourth in this stunning series of partnerships. “We also have the longstanding contract with the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA), Gibela,” he describes. “This JV comprises 70% ownership by Alstom and 30% our partner Ubumbano, and sees us tasked with delivering 600 electric multiple unit (EMU) trains between 2018 and 2030.

“Again, we have delivered the first 70 or so of these, each one consisting of a six-car configuration. We are now operating at a rate of around 44 trains per year, and in two years this will increase to 62. This long-term manufacturing and supply contract is in place until 2030, and running alongside it is a service agreement, which will stand for 19 years.

“For this contract we have built a brand-new plant, in Dunnottar, currently staffed by nearly 1000 people” Peille adds. “We remain an actively hiring company, and this number will grow to somewhere in the region of 1500 within the next couple of years – purely for the Gibela venture.” The JV in 2018 sparked the largest and most advanced centre for train manufacturing in Africa, and the first of its kind on the continent.

“We have invested close to a billion rand in the Gibela facilities,” Peille tells us, “one of which is dedicated to building the trains themselves, and the other to making some of their components.”

The 53,000m² site in Dunnottar took 22 months and 2.5 million hours to complete, and hosts manufacturing workshops designed in a modular format to enable lean manufacturing processes.

The world-class manufacturing facility and its equipment feature the latest innovations, facilitating the advanced manufacturing processes necessary for the assembly of at least 10,000 parts and the linkage of 250 industrial activities.

“We are all immensely proud of what we’ve achieved and are committed to delivering trains to the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa,” reinforced Didier Pfleger, Alstom Senior Vice President for Middle East and Africa.

“These are trains that will, first and foremost, improve the lives of South Africans. This factory is a major boost to the rail industry in the country, as South Africa will now be able to produce state-of-the-art trains locally and will become the Alstom centre of excellence for railway in Africa.”

SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY

When something like a lockdown comes along and causes the mobility of entire countries to grind to a complete halt, transport companies are naturally going to be among those taking the brunt of the impact, Peille relates. “For Alstom Group it has of course been a difficult period, as for our customers who have experienced a significant drop in traffic and in passenger transportation.

“Nevertheless,” he qualifies, “we continue to follow our strategy and pursue our growth targets, and our primary concern remains to satisfy our customers through our delivery and service. Continuing to be considered a preferred partner by them is a big part of our long-term plans.

“We have ambitions to extend our footprint beyond South Africa,” Peille says of a future rife with positivity. “Very large cities like Nairobi, Rwanda and Kinshasa are all very alluring prospects. We have the solutions as Alstom Group to export from South Africa, and in the medium term this is very much our aim – whether suburban trains, metro or urban solutions.”

This prosperous future that Peille depicts will be informed by every ounce of the experience accrued over his 32 years with the Alstom Group. “I have been posted to the US, France, China, Russia and now South Africa,” he informs us, “which has given access to multitude cultures, customers and challenges within the group.”

The landscape has changed markedly during his tenure, Peille says, but Alstom is perfectly situated to adapt to the prevailing order. “When I joined the primary investments in transport infrastructure development by many countries concerned high speed. This has drastically altered, and the focus now lies in green technologies.

“We have developed hydrogen trains in just the last couple of years, which are so much cleaner and more sustainable, and increasingly requested by both customers and passengers. It is an evolution that we will continue to buy into over the coming decades.

“Today it is much less about speed, where have reached the limits of what is possible in most areas, and more to do with making commuter and passenger lives much more enjoyable through the services we can provide on board, how we can help people stay connected to the outside world and ensure that every train journey is taken in a green and sustainable manner,” is Peille’s closing message.

“We want more satisfied customers, more growth and more innovation. We want to be the leader in South Africa’s railways and we will never stop working to achieve it.”