 In 2000, Connex Melbourne ordered 58 X'Trapolis 100 trains to fulfill a franchise commitment to replace its fleet of aging Hitachi trains.The first ten units were completely assembled at Alstom's, La Rochelle factory in France, however, from unit 11 onwards, only the body shells were assembled at La Rochelle, with the rest of the train being assembled in Victoria at Alstom's Ballarat facility.The trains differ from earlier trains on the Melbourne network in the following ways