Alstom, a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer, has signed a contract worth around £370m for 10 new nine-car Aventra trains for Transport for London’s Elizabeth line, along with maintenance until 2046.

The Elizabeth line is the fastest-growing railway in the UK. The route passes through 41 stations, stretching over 60 miles, from Reading and Heathrow airport in the west through central London to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east.

According to Transport for London (TfL), the Elizabeth line has seen more than 350 million journeys since it opened two years ago in May 2022. On average, there are around 700,000 passenger journeys on the line every weekday, with the busiest day recorded on 18 April 2024 when there were 787,000 journeys across the line.

With passenger demand predicted to grow later this decade and throughout the 2030s, its current fleet of 70 Alstom-built Aventra Class 345 trains would be insufficient to meet this demand.

Alstom has now announced that it has officially...