Spanish manufacturer CAF has become the virtual winner of the contract to manufacture 40 narrow-body trains for line 1 of the Madrid metro.
Although the award has not yet been made, it is the only one of the bidders to have reached the final phase of the tender. Metro de Madrid has asked the company for the necessary documentation to proceed with the formalisation.
In this way, CAF is following in the footsteps of the contract to manufacture 40 wide-body trains, which were put out to tender together with the narrow gauge trains. It became the only finalist on March 24, leaving Hitachi and Alstom out. Finally, a month later, the purchase was awarded for 450 million euros. The manufacturer has three years to produce the new trains that will serve lines 6, 8 and 11.
CAF to manufacture 40 narrow gauge trains for Madrid metro line 1
The tender envisages the manufacture of 40 narrow loading gauge dual-voltage trains, each with 6 cars. They will replace the 2000 series trains, known as “Panda”, which in the 1980s revolutionised the quality and performance standards of the Madrid underground.
This contract is valued at 412 million euros. As with the wide-body trains, it includes the design, manufacture, supply and commissioning of the trains for 10 years. In addition, the successful bidder will have to develop and implement an optimisation programme for the useful life cycle of these trains, which is estimated to be around 40 years.
Although the trains will come with a driver’s cab, they will be designed to dispense with it and be able to be driven fully automatically, in GoA 4.
For the moment, no details are known about the proposals made by CAF, let alone the series to which the 80 new trains will belong. Create a free account in Trenvista and you will receive the latest news about these trains in your inbox.
