Alstom extends UK train services contract for 15 years in £800 million deal
Key Facts
Alstom announced on 15 October 2026 that it had signed a 15-year extension to a train services agreement with British operator Greater Anglia, worth approximately £800 million. The agreement is equivalent to €947 million, according to the company's statement, which specified that the contract covers an existing fleet operated by Greater Anglia. The extension covers services for Class 720 "Aventra" electric trains, continuing the contractual relationship between the two parties. The fleet covered by the agreement comprises 133 trains, each consisting of 5 carriages, according to details of the announcement. Alstom said the agreement supports around 100 jobs at the company while continuing to meet the servicing needs of this British fleet throughout the extension.
The agreement comes as Alstom's services business recorded sales growth in the first fiscal quarter, while group orders fell compared with the same period a year earlier. Services sales reached €1,178 million, compared with €1,070 million in the comparative period, according to the company's results report. Reported growth for the business was 10% year on year, while organic growth was 9%. Alstom attributed the increase in services sales to "the ramp-up of project execution in the United Kingdom and the United States," according to the results report. Group orders during the same quarter fell to €2,560 million, compared with €4,075 million in the same period a year earlier. This represented a decline of 37% on both a reported and organic basis, according to the company's published first-quarter figures.
The extension of the Greater Anglia agreement followed Alstom's announcement of other contracts in the British market for train maintenance and refurbishment, including work for operator CrossCountry. Those contracts were worth approximately £80 million, according to the company's announcement on supporting the expansion and refurbishment of the operator's fleet. The work includes maintaining and refurbishing 8 additional "Voyager" trains, combining continued servicing with refurbishment of the trains covered. Alstom said in its announcement of the CrossCountry contracts that it supports 63% of the existing UK train fleet. Its announced contractual presence in this market spans services for existing fleets and train supply contracts, which also include maintenance agreements with operators.
Under earlier contracts with TransPennine Express, Alstom announced a total value of €1.2 billion for the supply and maintenance of battery-electric trains. The deal covers both the delivery of trains to the British operator and associated maintenance services, according to the company's announcement. Maintenance agreements within the deal were worth approximately €230 million, forming part of the overall contract with the operator. That value covers maintenance work within a deal combining supply and services, while the Greater Anglia agreement extends an existing services relationship for a fleet already in operation with the operator. Alstom's announced British contracts thus encompass refurbishment of existing trains, long-term services, and the supply and maintenance of battery-electric trains.
For the operator, the services agreement extension follows the transfer of Greater Anglia's operations to public ownership on 12 October 2025, under a train operating company owned by Britain's Department for Transport. The department said when announcing the transfer that the operation of all Greater Anglia services had come under public ownership from that date. The operator is moving towards integration within "GBR Anglia," according to its statement marking a year since its transfer to public ownership. The operator described the arrangement as "a unified railway bringing together Greater Anglia, c2c and Network Rail Anglia," combining operations and the regional network within a single system. In the same operational context, it said the unprecedented hot and dry summer of 2026 had required additional speed restrictions on parts of its network.
In the market, Alstom shares closed at €15.96 in the 15 October 2026 session, which coincided with the announcement of the agreement extension, according to EL7 data. On the booking of the contract, the company said the order would be included in the third quarter of its 2026/27 fiscal year. The next event on its financial calendar is the release of half-year results, scheduled for 17 November 2026, according to its investor relations calendar. That date concerns half-year results for the same fiscal year in which the company said the Greater Anglia order would be booked in the third quarter. Following the half-year results, the financial calendar sets 19 January 2027 for the announcement of third-quarter orders and sales for the 2026/27 fiscal year.