CAF will supply additional trams to the Belgian operator De Lijn and to the Dutch province of Utrecht under two contracts which had been formerly concluded, for a total of almost €45 million.
The Flemish Transport Company, De Lijn (Belgium), has agreed to purchase a new batch of units under the contract entered with CAF in October 2017, by adding 17 additional trams. De Lijn is the Flemish public bus and tram operator, providing transport to approximately 530 million passengers per year.
The initial contract consisted of the production and supply of up to 146 trams, which are ordered by the client in consecutive tranches. Before this extension, the first two tranches, each comprising 24 trams, were ordered in October 2017 when the contract was concluded, whilst a third tranche for an additional 23 units was ordered in March 2019. The first 48 units will run on the Belgian coastal line, whilst the trams making up the third and fourth tranches will serve the city of Antwerp as of the second half of 2022.
Additionally, the province of Utrecht (Netherlands) has entered into an agreement with CAF for the production and supply of 5 additional trams which will add to the 49 units that CAF is currently delivering under the contract awarded in early 2015.
Part of this new CAF tram fleet is already in service on the new Uithoflijn line, which was inaugurated at the end of 2019, whilst the rest will replace the vehicles that are more than 30 years old that have been running on the Nieuwegein line until now. This will serve the purpose of both improving the service and increasing the number of passengers on both lines.
Over the past few years, CAF has been awarded significant contracts in Benelux. Aside from the contracts, these include the supply of metro units for Brussels, metro and tram units for Amsterdam, as well as trams for the cities of Luxembourg and Liège. CAF is also supplying the Dutch operator NS (Nederlandse Spoorwegen) with 206 commuter trains. This is one of the biggest contracts CAF has been awarded in Europe to date.
CAF Signalling is awarded a new contract for Adif
Through its subsidiary CAF Signalling, the CAF Group consolidates its position in the signalling sector in Spain as ADIF recently awarded the company a contract for the upgrading and improvement of the safety installations on the Silla-Cullera-Gandía route on the Valencia Suburban network (line C-1), for almost €20 million, with a completion term of 18 months.
The work consists of equipping the safety and communications facilities required to commission the Automatic Bi-Directional Block Signalling system (ABS) between Silla and Cullera, as well as upgrading facilities on the Cullera-Gandía route.
As part of the scope of this project, CAF Signalling will install its new generation of Quasar Q4 interlocks, upgrade the wayside equipment (signals, motors and axle counter detection systems) and install the ASFA Digital train protection system, designing a solution to include the ERTMS level 2 system in the future.
These actions form a part of the investments that are planned under the Community of Valencia's Suburban Plan framework.
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