French railway manufacturer Alstom announced on Thursday that it has concluded a contract worth nearly €850 million to supply Proxima, a new private French train company, with 12 next-generation high-speed trains and 15 years of maintenance.
Alstom will deliver 12 Avelia Horizon high-speed trains, also known as TGV M, and provide maintenance for 15 years on Atlantic coast routes, where Proxima plans to launch services by the late 2020s. The first deliveries are expected in 2028.
Proxima aims to link Nantes, Bordeaux, Rennes, and Angers with Paris. The company intends to offer an additional 10 million seats on high-speed trains on the Atlantic axis.
Founded by Rachel Picard, head of TGV at the French railway company SNCF until early 2020, and Alpha Trains founder Timothy Jackson, a former director of French state-owned group RATP's activities in the UK and Ireland, Proxima has a strong leadership team.
The Avelia Horizon trains, which the SNCF will begin using in the second half of 2025, are double-deckers with more seats than current TGVs. Proxima plans to implement unique features to differentiate itself from the SNCF.
To finance the project, Antin Infrastructure Partners announced a €1 billion investment, part of which will go towards purchasing the trains. This also makes Antin an investor in Proxima.
