Alstom today announced that NJ TRANSIT has exercised options to purchase an additional 200 Multilevel III commuter cars and 12 ALP-45 dual-powered locomotives. The total value of this purchase is approximately 1.0 billion euro^[1] (1.1 billion USD). NJ TRANSIT is the nation’s largest statewide public transportation agency and its third largest agency overall with nearly 270 million passenger trips each year.

The purchase of additional rolling stock is part of NJ TRANSIT’s continuing efforts to create a more modern, efficient and reliable fleet to serve passengers traveling within the state and commuting to New York City and Philadelphia. The Multilevel III cars will replace 40-year-old single-level cars with a model that can travel between 10 and 20 times further between critical repairs. The new cars will also increase capacity by more than 12%.   

Passenger amenities for the Multilevel III cars include USB charging ports, digital screens and automated audio announcements with route and station information.

The new order comes on top of 174 Multilevel III vehicles that NJ TRANSIT previously ordered from Alstom. Approximately a third of the total order are multilevel power cars (MLPCs), meaning that they are equipped with a power system that eliminates the need for a locomotive.  A 12-car trainset will typically travel with four MLPCs, providing redundancy and improving reliability if one of the power cars malfunctions.

The additional 12 ALP 45 dual-power locomotives will replace some of NJ TRANSIT’s older, diesel-only engines. The ALP 45’s can take advantage of overhead catenary wires for cleaner electric power where available. On parts of NJ TRANSIT’s network that are not electrified, the ALP 45’s will switch to diesel engines that meet Tier IV emission requirements from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. With this new purchase, NJ TRANSIT will own a total of 72 ALP 45 dual-power locomotives.

-via Press Release