The flaw, discovered by the Basque company itself, will cause a delay of several years in the renewal of the Renfe fleet until this issue is resolved.
An error by Adif led Renfe to commission the Basque company CAF to build trains that would not fit in the tunnels of Cantabria and Asturias. Due to this error, discovered by DAF itself, the production of the new fleet will be delayed by two to three years until this problem is resolved.
Renfe published in January 2019 the specifications for the procurement of 31 metric gauge trains in accordance with the gauges included in the Adif network statement and, in June 2020, CAF awarded their manufacture, following a bidding process impacted by the pandemic.
When it turned out that the trains with the measures published in the network statement would not fit in certain parts of the infrastructure, the whole start-manufacturing process was halted and the search for the best possible solution began, according to a report by Adif, Renfe and the State Bureau for Railway Safety (AESF).
In addition to the 31 trains for Renfe’s metric gauge lines, previously operated by Feve (Euskadi, Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria and Castilla y León), the order included a second batch of a further six units to cover the Cercedilla reserves of the Madrid region to be completely renewed. sierra which has been in business for over 40 years. The total volume of the operation amounted to more than 250 million euros for CAF.
After the order was awarded, CAF informed Renfe of the possibility that the infrastructure did not meet the meters published by Adif, a point later confirmed, the report said.
In this regard, the Secretary General for Infrastructure of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, Xavier Flores, has acknowledged that there is “a problem” with the size of commuter trains going to Cantabria and Asturias, and has assured that Renfe It is already working with CAF to have the new trains available “as soon as possible”, which will be “modern”, “improve citizens’ lives” and “have the maximum benefits”.
In this sense, he explained that the Feve line is “very special”, it has tunnels “smaller than usual”, which meant that these new trains being modernized “made sure that there were smaller trains or not the same conditions that we currently to have. .
Flores has indicated that in the end “a new comparative method” was chosen, which consists of using as a reference a train currently running on the metric rail lines. For this, CAF will hire a company specialized in its application and in adapting the project to the result of the analysis.
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Source: EITB
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
