The first new metro train produced by Alstom has arrived, Budapest mayor Gábor Demszky announced on Monday 2 March 09. In all, 22 subway trains with five carriages each will run on the city’s north-south “blue line” by the end of the year.

Budapest is claiming default interest payments from Alstom, as the trains should have arrived in 2008, Demszky said.

Alstom will deliver 15 four-carriage trains for the fourth metro line for €215 million. Alstom is also claiming default interest payments, because the fourth metro line project is behind schedule. An agreement can be reached in ongoing negotiations, Demszky added.

The new trains are expected to receive all necessary permits before the end of the year.

The new trains were designed in France to resemble the trains on the 100-year-old subway line beneath Andrássy út, said CEO Zoltán Gallatz of Alstom Transport Hungary.

(source: Hungary Around the Clock.)