CAF and Colas make green transportation possible in Liège with its first tramway line
The inhabitants of Liège in Belgium will benefit from a green transport thanks to the public-private partnership signed last January between OTW, the Walloon transport operator, and Tram’Ardent for the construction of the first tramway line in the city.
The 31-year contract includes a 45-month design and construction phase, followed by a 27-year maintenance period.
Tram’Ardent, a consortium comprised of Colas Belgium, Colas Projects, Colas Rail Belgium, CAF Investment Project, a subsidiary of the Spanish rolling stock manufactures Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) and the investment fund DIF Infrastructure V, will construct a 12 km long tramway line that will serve 21 stations and link the southwest of the city to the northeast. With about 20 trains, the Liège tramway will be a true transport backbone, connected to park and ride facilities, the historical center and other local community areas.
This future train is a response to the saturated conditions of other public transportation means in the area. It will allow to transport more passengers, more quickly and a greater rate, while being more cost-efficient and environmentally friendly.
Work is programmed to begin this year and the commissioning is scheduled for October 2022. Colas is responsible for the design and construction of the stations, tracks, overhead contact lines, buildings and engineering structures, as well as the project’s development work, including 240.000 m2 of ancillary projects promoting soft mobility, for a total of 266 million euros. CAF, on the other hand, is in charge of the design and construction of systems and rolling stock.
The construction of a tramway in Liège represents the arrival of a new form of transport and a better quality of life in the city. Beyond the reclassification of urban space, this new form of mobility will certainly be beneficial in terms of attractiveness, accessibility and air quality for the city and its inhabitants. Moreover, it is a large-scale example of the desire of the people of Walloon to improve the public transport offer, given the fact that the tramway will also involve reviewing all the bus lines in Liège and adapting them to the mobility of today and tomorrow.
Societe Generale Madrid and Societe Generale Paris played an important role to make this sustainable project possible. Both teams succeeded in meeting the needs of the consortium by successfully issuing through Societe Generale Belgium a large amount of several tens of millions of euros of both performance and execution guarantees.
We are very proud to play the role of fronting and issuing Bank of these guarantees, showing our commitment to the environment and society
Head of Trade Finance in Spain
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