Wabtec Corporation has entered the Central American railway market for the first time with an order for platform screen doors for the Panama Metro.

The order is for 300 half-height platform screen doors to be installed at Metro de Panama’s L3 monorail stations that are being built by Hitachi Rail, as part of the Grupo de Empresas Sunrise Monorail.

The order is part of a project to create a new monorail line 25km long to be served by 28 six-car trains (168 cars), as well as the associated signalling, telecommunications, and power systems. As well as supplying the platform screen doors, Wabtec will provide training and support for their installation, testing, and commissioning.

The platform screen doors improve safety by acting as a physical barrier to prevent people or objects from falling onto tracks or trespassing. Thanks to their ease of installation, half-height screen doors provide an ideal solution to enhance safety on technically-challenging outdoor rail lines.

The world’s first platform screen doors were installed in 2002 by Wabtec in Hong Kong, Since then, the company has installed them in Sydney, Australia, and metro lines in Paris, France, and Brussels, Belgium, and have recently won a contract to supply platform screen doors for the Marseille metro as part of plans to upgrade and automate its local transport network.

Lilian Leroux, Wabtec Transit President, said:

“As a pioneer in platform screen doors with multiple successful projects to our name, Wabtec is the natural choice for half-height gates for metro applications.”

“Having worked with Wabtec on a successful project to install half-height platform screen doors on the Copenhagen metro, Denmark, the team at Hitachi knew our proven capabilities in this area. We are proud to play a leading role in ensuring the safety and comfort of passengers on the Panama Metrolink, and in creating more reliable, secure, and robust metro networks the world over.”

“Having delivered one of the most advanced metro lines around the world – employing the latest digital technology – we know that the doors, platforms, and stations have to work together with the rest of the systems to operate efficiently and provide a great passenger experience.”

Chris Singer, Director – Signaling and Turnkey Procurement, Americas Region, Hitachi Rail, said:

“The gates contribute to making rail services more punctual and reliable by helping passengers board and alight trains in an orderly and safely fashion, thereby reducing wait times.”