FRANCE: SNCF Voyageurs has awarded CAF a firm order to supply a further 22 Oxygène trainsets for inter-city services between Bordeaux and Marseille.
In 2019 the national passenger operator ordered an initial 28 10-car Z26700 trainsets for the Paris – Limoges – Toulouse and Paris – Clermont-Ferrand routes, with options for up to 75 more. The latest order confirmed on December 20 is worth more than €400m.
The orders are being financed by the French government, which is responsible for Trains d’Équilibre du Territoire medium and long-distance passenger services on conventional lines.
The 1·5 kV DC and 25 kV 50 Hz Oxygène trainsets are designed replace Corail locomotive-hauled coaches on 200 km/h inter-city services. They have 317 second class and 103 first class seats, with LED reading lights, power sockets, USB ports, wi-fi and a catering area.
The 22 new trains will be manufactured at CAF’s Reichshoffen plant, where the majority of the 28 trains in the initial order are to be produced; the first eight are being built at CAF’s Beasain factory in Spain.
CAF said the latest order would provide a significant increase in the workload at Reichshoffen through to 2029.
Meanwhile, the first trainset is undergoing testing at the Velim test track in the Czech Republic to validate the design and performance and verify compliance with national and European standards.
Approval testing in France is expected to begin in autumn 2025, with testing under real-world conditions planned for 2026 to enable approval for passenger services; this is now planned for 2027.
- Subscribers can read a comprehensive description of the Oxygène, originally known as Confort 200, and the related route enhancement projects from the January 2021 issue of Railway Gazette International.
