Alstom, the Métropole Aix-Marseille-Provence and Marseille designer Ora Ïto have finalised the exterior design and interior layout of the new trains for the Marseille metro.
The new trains are expected to enter operation by 2023, when the existing vehicles will be replaced by a driverless, automatic metro, air-conditioned, accessible from the platform for people with reduced mobility, and benefiting from cutting-edge technology that improves operational flexibility, quality of service and passenger comfort.
The design is centred on the light of Marseille, a welcoming city bathed in sunshine and the Mediterranean.
The future metros will be lined with a play of blue trim on the outside and radiant interior harmony in warm, natural tones, colouring the muted spaces with a convivial touch. The passenger experience will be enhanced by a sound design inspired by the city’s various emblematic landscapes. Vast reception areas will offer accessibility to all passengers, including people with reduced mobility with dedicated areas, improving the fluidity and capacity of the trains. With large bay windows, a sophisticated air-conditioning system and a modern passenger information system, the new Marseille metro will offer a pleasant travelling experience.
The new Marseille metro trains are eco-designed, enabling them to be 96% recycled at the end of their lifespan. They will consume 25% less energy than the metros currently in service, thanks in particular to electric braking, LED lighting and other optimisations.
To design the new trains, the authorities involved the city’s inhabitants under a public consultation process launched at the end of 2019. More than 17,000 people were thus given the opportunity to say what they thought. Out of three proposals devised by the Alstom group, the one nicknamed “Listen to the City” was selected by the inhabitants of Marseille with a majority of 44% of the votes.
This is the basis on which Alstom’s teams, the designers Ora Ïto and Fabien Bourdier and the services of the Métropole started working in collaboration to apply the design concepts to all the elements of the metro.
For Métropole Aix-Marseille-Provence, the modernisation of the metro is part of a programme to gradually make Marseille’s stations more accessible. By 2023, seven stations will be accessible to people with reduced mobility, while the other 16 stations in the network will begin their transformation from 2024.
The first projects are already moving in this direction, such as Saint-Marguerite station, now equipped with a lift for people with reduced mobility, and the new Capitaine Gèze station, the terminus of line 2, open since December 2019.
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