Siemens: Siemens Mobility delivers Line B of the Rennes metro

With the commissioning of the new state-of-the-art automated metro Line B in Rennes, Siemens Mobility has once again demonstrated its leading expertise in delivering fully automated turnkey metro systems. Crossing the Rennes metropolitan area along a South-West axis, Line B has 15 stations spread over 13 km. 20 years after the first metro line in Rennes opened with VAL technology (Line A), Rennes Métropole and SEMTCAR renewed their trust in Siemens Mobility to equip the second metro line in the city with the new generation of the automated metro system, Cityval.
Siemens Mobility delivers Line B of the Rennes metro
“Siemens Mobility France had already equipped the first metro line of the city of Rennes with its VAL system. Today, together with Rennes Métropole, we are proud to inaugurate the new Line B equipped with the latest generation of Cityval automated driverless metro, which will strengthen the city’s ability to offer low-carbon emission mobility,” said Laurent Bouyer, President of Siemens Mobility France. “Designed at our world center of expertise in Toulouse, the Cityval deployed in Rennes showcases the quality of our products and the skills of our teams worldwide.”
As part of this turnkey contract, Siemens Mobility provided the entire system engineering, delivered, and implemented the Cityval rolling stock (25 trainsets, initially consisting of two cars), the automated train control system, the track system, the electrification, the platform doors, the operating control center (OCC), the garage workshop facilities, as well as the radio communication and real-time video transmission in the stations and onboard the trains. Siemens Mobility is also providing the services for operations and maintenance of the system, including the training of personnel, instructions, spare parts, and documentation.
Building on 40 years of innovation, Siemens Mobility’s VAL flagship product system continues to evolve with the Cityval. Its fully automated intermediate capacity transport system is ideal for medium-sized cities that want to offer low-carbon mobility.
The Cityval provides many advantages:
Performance: 60 second minimum intervals between trains and high acceleration capacity.
Scalability: The possibility to add a third car during its operation, thus considerably increasing the capacity of the transport system without having to build new infrastructures.
Passenger experience: The vehicle includes wide doors for better access to platforms, configurations that ease the passenger movement within trains, large windows from floor to ceiling that increases luminosity, video surveillance and real-time passenger information.
Easy urban integration: The vehicle can handle steep slopes (up to 10%) and tight curves.
Cost optimization: Innovations in the concrete slab, guiding rail and switches allow for cost optimization over the project’s entire life cycle (infrastructure and maintenance costs).
Sustainability: Its energy consumption is reduced thanks to the management of the movement of automated trains enabled by the CBTC automatic system. The 100% electric braking system enables energy savings of up to 15% with virtually no particle emissions.