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The Israel Railways recently awarded a $94 million contract to Bombardier Transportation to provide 54 double-deck cars.

The railway is exercising an option for 23 cars included in the initial contract awarded in 1999 and adding another 31 units.

Scheduled to be delivered between December 2005 and mid-2006, the 47 intermediary coaches and seven cab cars will be manufactured at Bombardier’s Gorlitz, Germany, facility. Some final assembly, such as the installation of heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems, and seats will be completed by the Israel Aviation Industry. Twenty-nine cars will be equipped with special ramps and accessible restrooms to accommodate disabled riders.

Israel Railways now has purchased 147 double-deck cars from Bombardier.

Bombardier also obtained a contract from France’s Communaute Urbaine Marseille Provence Metropole (MPM) to engineer, design and build a mock-up of a bi-directional FLEXITY Outlook tram for a new network in Marseille, scheduled to open in 2007.

In fall, MPM will order 25 to 30 of the vehicles, which feature low-floor interior, conventional wheel-set bogies, and Bombardier’s MITRAC propulsion and control system.