Denmark to order 100 electric trains from Alstom in $3.2 billion deal

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark's state-owned railway operator DSB said on Monday it will buy 100 new electric trains from France's Alstom in a deal worth 20 billion Danish crowns ($3.2 billion).

The new trains are built around Alstom's Coradia Stream platform already in use in Italy and will replace Denmark's diesel-powered trains.

"With the order of new electric trains we can look forward to retiring the aging diesel trains in a few years," the chairman of DSB, Peter Schütze, said in a statement.

The new trains, which will each comprise five carriages, are scheduled to enter service in late-2024 with the last deliveries due in 2030, DSB said, adding the deal included service and maintenance.

The purchase comes after a botched purchase of Italian trains more than a decade ago. Technical problems with the 85 trains, of which less than half are currently still in use, ended up costing the Danish state hundreds of millions of dollars, causing a public outcry.

The railway operator said it expects to purchase another 50 trains at a later stage.

($1 = 6.2442 Danish crowns)

(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and Tim Barsoe; editing by David Evans, Kirsten Donovan)