The first 20 sets were manufactured at Alstom’s Lapa plant in São Paulo, Brazil, while the remaining 580 trains will be assembled locally.

Gibela is currently building a 600,000 m2 plant in Dunnottar, 50km from Johannesburg, which will house a 4000 m2 training centre. The plant will produce 62 trains per year, and in 10 years the project will create over 1500 jobs at the plant.

Alstom Brazil will continue to support Gibela’s technical staff until mid-2018. Sixteen of the trains have been in commercial operation since May 2017.