The contracts include the supply of 11 trains for the New Aquitaine Region in southern France and seven units for Senegal's Agency for the Promotion of Investment and Major Works (APIX) under the country's Transport Department. These are the first extensions in a series of Coradia Polyvalent platform projects that are currently underway, with plans for an increase in the number of trains to be delivered.
CAF has acquired the Reichshoffen manufacturing plant in France from Alstom in August of last year, which included the Coradia Polyvalent platform and a backlog of related orders, as well as the intellectual property of the Talent 3 platform. The move aimed to strengthen CAF's position in the French and German markets. As a result, France has become one of the company's most significant markets for the coming years.
Alstom was forced to give up some of its assets by the European Commission, after the merger with Bombardier Transportation, making it the second biggest locomotives and trains manufacturer in the world after Chinese CRRC.
Alstom will still work in consortium with CAF for both projects, supplying equipment for the units while CAF designs and manufactures the trains, each consisting of four cars, at the Alsatian plant in Reichshoffen.
These contracts have boosted CAF's backlog in France to €2.4bn, an all-time high that accounts for 18% of the group's backlog.
CAF is currently fulfilling contracts for some of the country's main railway networks:
- 28 Intercity trains for the SNCF to run on the Paris-Clermont and Paris-Limoges-Toulouse lines
- 146 trains for the Paris RER B commuter line
- Projects to supply trams for the metropolitan areas of Montpellier and Marseille
CAF stands for Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles and it is a publicly listed company manufacturing rolling stock. It is based in Beasain in Basque county and in public transportation manufacturing, it is also a full owner of the bus & coaches subsidiary, Solaris.
