London’s Docklands Light Railway’s (DLR) has awarded Thales two new contracts to support its rolling stock replacement programme. Thales will supply and integrate the on-board control systems for the fleet of 43 automated trains that Spanish rolling stock manufacturer CAF is supplying to replace the fleet from 2023.
This contract has been awarded by CAF, which received a contract from Transport for London (TfL) to deliver trains for DLR in June this year. The second contract, awarded by TfL, is for supply of DLR signalling system improvements to the software sub systems that will also support the new fleet.
Both contracts are valid until September 2024. Thales UK Urban Rail Signalling VP Andrew Bell said: “Thales is very pleased to be continuing its contribution to the growth of DLR and the impact this will have to increased service for east London transit users.
“Thales has been working with the DLR team for more than 30 years by supporting the lifecycle extension of assets and leveraging of their existing and new signalling systems.”
With more than 400,000 journeys made on weekdays, the DLR is an automated light metro system that serves the Docklands area of East London. It is regarded as the busiest light railway network in the UK and consists of 38km of track with 45 stations with step-free access. The DLR has been using Thales’s SelTrac Communications Based Train Control (CBTC) technology since 1994.
Last month, Thales and its consortium partner River Engineering received a contract from Thailand’s State Railway to design, supply and install the ETCS Level 1 Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system. The technology will be installed on four sections of the northern, north-eastern, eastern and douthern lines from Bangkok.
