SPANISH National Railways announced on September 14 that a special meeting of its administrative board that day had decided unanimously to order a build of 12 gauge-changing high-speed trains from a consortium of CAF and Alstom. Under the €115·5m deal, Renfe has reserved the option to undertake 20% of the construction in its own workshops.
Intended to operate through services to destinations off the Madrid - Barcelona route, the 220 km/h EMUs will use CAF-developed Brava bogies to change automatically from 1435 to 1676mm gauge at up to 30 km/h. They will be equipped to operate at 25 kV 50Hz on the new line and 3 kV DC on the broad-gauge routes. Each four-car unit will have 82 seats for Preferente passengers and 156 for Turista, together with a cafeteria area in one of the centre cars. All four coaches will be powered, with the inner axle on each bogie motored.
- On August 3, the Spanish cabinet agreed that high-speed construction authority GIF should be responsible for building and managing the proposed Pts14·3bn line from Madrid to Toledo. Offering a 25min time for the 76 km journey, the project envisages a 25 km branch leaving the Madrid - Sevilla route 51 km south of the capital.
