These last five years have been particularly prosperous for Alstom's Charleroi-based subsidiary. An overflowing order book. Contracts in Belgium, the Netherlands, the United States, India and China. Today, the site has over 1,000 employees including 550 engineers. Enough to view the future calmly.

Alstom Belgium can boast about being the group's worldwide centre of excellence, thanks to its specialisation in two cutting-edge fields, power electronics and signalling systems. Fifty-five percent of its staff work on such signalling systems and in the presence of King Philippe during his state visit to Denmark, the group unveiled the installation of Atlas, its solution developed around the ERTMS (European Trail Traffic Management System), the European standard, on the rail network in the east of the Scandinavian country. This system even convinced Australia and China to adopt it under another name.

During the 2016-2017 financial year (closed on 31 March) as during the previous financial year, the group recorded orders representing one and a half times its turnover (7.3 billion euros). It's order book is currently worth 34.8 billion euros, which therefore represents nearly five years of business. After signing a very big contract in Belgium in late 2015, orders have piled up in 2016: Intercity trains in the Netherlands, new high-speed trains for the Boston-Washington line and even 800 locomotives destined for Indian Railways. This 3.7 billion-euro contract is similar to that for 4 billion euros signed in 2013 with South African Railways for the supply of 600 suburban trains, the largest ever obtained by the Alstom group.

In order to stay on top, Alstom Charleroi dedicates 8% of its turnover to and employs around one hundred people in research.