The SNCF TET (trains d'équilibre du territoire) trains, also known as Intercité, get another renewal. The operator, SNCF Voyageur, ordered 28 new CAF Confort 200 trains (with a business name Oxygène) in 2019. Four years later, it has decided to execute an option for 20 more trains from the framework agreement of 75 for the Bordeaux – Toulouse – Montpellier - Marseilles line.
The first 28 Oxygène trains are aimed for lines leading from Paris to Toulouse and Clermond-Ferrand. These will gradually replace Corail trains on these two lines. Each of the new trains will accommodate 420 passengers, and two trains can be coupled simultaneously. Their maximum speed reaches 200 km/h and corresponding infrastructure improvements are ongoing. This includes maintenance facilities, in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, Clermont-Ferrand, Brive-la-Gaillarde, and Paris Austerlitz Masséna Technicentre. Trains are produced in the French assembly plant of CAF in Bagnères‐de‐Bigorre and in Spanish Besain. The first train has already been produced and sent to the VUZ Velim testing centre.
CAF’s newly obtained Reichshoffen plant will make the 20 new trains, and the location of a new maintenance centre is still to be announced. Trains for the line Bordeaux – Toulouse – Montpellier - Marseilles should cost 450 million euros and start arriving in early 2027.
