Alstom is walking the talk in its commitment to replace the EbiCab ETCS on-board system, inherited from Bombardier Transportation, with its own product, ATLAS.
The manufacturer struggles to keep up with the demand for its multisystem TRAXX locomotives mainly due to missing homologation in several countries and the fact that locomotives were delivered with EbiCab European Train Control System, which the company aims to replace with its own product, ATLAS.
On 17 May 2023, the first Alstom TRAXX locomotive with the ATLAS ETCS onboarding system installed left the factory in Kassel, heading for tests in the VUZ Velim testing circuit in Czechia.
The plan is to install an ATLAS signalling system to Alstom TRAXX locomotives for a cross-border operation with ETCS Baseline 3. This would enable Alstom to keep commitments to its customers and to ramp up production for a locomotive-hungry European market, where waiting times for new locomotives exceed three years for new orders. Siemens Mobility benefits from this situation, with a long backlog of its broadly-homologated Vectron platform.
