Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles

Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (Grupo CAF, literally "Construction and Other Railway Services") is a Spanish publicly listed company which manufactures railway vehicles and equipment and buses through its Solaris Bus & Coach subsidiary. It is based in Beasain, Basque Autonomous Community, Spain. Equipment manufactured by Grupo CAF includes light rail vehicles, rapid transit trains, railroad cars and locomotives, as well as variable gauge axles that can be fitted on any existing truck or bogie.

Over the 20 years from the early 1990s, CAF benefited from the rail investment boom in its home market in Spain to become a world player with a broad technical capability, able to manufacture almost any type of rail vehicle. CAF has supplied railway rolling stock to a number of major urban transit operators around Europe, the US, South America, East Asia, India, Australia and North Africa.

History

CAF was an acronym for the earlier name of Compañía Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles, as well as for Construcciones y Auxiliar de Feres.

Fábrica de Hierros San Martín

In 1860, Domingo Goitia, Martín Usabiaga and José Francisco Arana established this company, whose main activity was puddling furnaces and cylinder rolling.

La Maquinista Guipuzcoana

In 1892, Francisco de Goitia (Domingo Goitia's son and heir) joined the Marquess of Urquijo to set up La Maquinista Guipuzcoana, whose main activity was the operation of machinery and the forging and construction of railway rolling stock.

In 1898, it set up its plant in Beasain, Gipuzkoa. In 1905 it changed its name to Fábrica de Vagones de Beasain (FVB).

Compañía Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles

Compañía Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) was founded in 1917, specializing in freight car production and with a total of 1,600 employees.

In 1940, the Irun factory was set up, following the expansion of activity after the Spanish Civil War (CAF took part in reconstructing the Spanish rail fleet).

In 1954, CAF took over Material Móvil y Construcciones (MMC) from Zaragoza (Aragon), a company with extensive experience in manufacturing long-distance and subway trains.

Since 1958, the company has modernized and enlarged its Beasain plant and expanded its activity to include all kinds of rolling stock. In line with this, in 1969 CAF created its Research and Development Unit, which increased the company's competitiveness and intensified the focus on in-house technology.

Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles

In 1971, the existing Compañía Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) merged with Material Móvil y Construcciones (MMC) and the company adopted its current name Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles.

Since the early 1990s, CAF has also been active internationally. In the early 2000s, CAF supplied high-speed trains to the Spanish RENFE and in 2005, high-speed trains were exported for the first time (to Turkey).

In 2018, CAF took over the Polish bus manufacturer Solaris. The company also acquired the Talent 3 platform from competitor Bombardier Transportation in 2022, as well as the Coradia Polyvalent platform and the plant in Reichshoffen from train manufacturer Alstom. This was a condition imposed by the European Commission's competition authority for the approval of the 2021 takeover of Bombardier Transportation by Alstom.

Subsidiaries

CAF U.S.A., a wholly owned subsidiary of CAF, was incorporated in 1998 and is based in Elmira, New York. It manufactures rolling stock for the North American market at a plant in Elmira that the company acquired from ADtranz in 2000. The company from Beasain continued its expansion during the third millennium.

On 24 May 2019, it announced the acquisition of the Swedish company Euromaint at a cost of circa €80 million, following other international contracts to supply Flemish and English railway and underground networks in 2017.

CAF Rolling Stock U.K. Ltd. is the CAF subsidiary in the United Kingdom. Its factory is based at Celtic Springs Business Park, at Llanwern steelworks near Newport, Wales as a result of an agreement made between CAF and the Welsh Government. The Newport factory has built stock for Transport for Wales, Arriva Rail North, the Docklands Light Railway, and potentially High Speed 2 if CAF win the bid process. They also donated £150,000 to the Conservative Party.

CAF Signalling was fined in 2021 with 1.7 million euros by the Spanish commission on markets and competition because of its participation in a cartel with other 7 international companies which colluded in tenders over Spanish rail infrastructure.

Train defects

In April 2014, two carriages of an Urbos 3 tram in Belgrade separated during passenger service, due to the cracking of screws connecting the cars. Half of the Belgrade tramway's CAF fleet were found to have been affected by similar cracking of screws in the two weeks prior to the incident.

In March 2016, 19 British Rail Class 332 units were taken out of service after a crack was discovered in the underframe of one unit during routine maintenance.

In December 2017, the Besançon Tramway in Besançon, France discovered cracks in their Urbos 3s vehicles around the bogie box area of the bodies, which in December 2020 CAF paid for remedial work to be performed with each unit affected requiring one month downtime for the work to be completed.

In January 2019, BM3 number 1322-2322 "Putna" of the Bucharest Metro crashed in Metrorex's Berceni underground workshops, currently concessioned by Alstom under a long maintenance contract. The year long investigation by the AGIFER proved that the TCMS software was at fault. As of 2024, legal battles between Metrorex/Alstom and CAF are still carried.

In April 2021, 22 British Rail Class 195 Civity units were temporarily removed from service after routine maintenance revealed a yaw damper bracket had detached from the body of unit 195121.

On June 11, 2021, West Midlands Metro (operating between Birmingham and Wolverhampton, England) were forced to suspend their services due to cracks being discovered in the bogie box areas of their Urbos 3s vehicles, with ongoing investigations continuing to identify any other issues relating to the cracks and to find options for remedial works to be performed. Full service only began once more in February 2022.

On June 24, 2021, Flytoget were forced to withdraw their entire CAF Oaris fleet after 19 days of service due to the discovery of cracks in the chassis. The first unit was returned to service after modifications to the cracked part on the 9th of January, 2023. By the end of June 2023, two years after the withdrawal, six out of eight units had been returned to service. In the meantime, CAF has paid an unknown amount to Flytoget in compensation.

Following on from these instances, in November 2021 the New South Wales transport minister Rob Stokes announced that the Sydney L1 Dulwich Hill Line would be decommissioned for up to 18 months, due to serious design flaws in all 12 of the CAF Urbos 3s tram sets that were running on the line. Stokes stated that the flaws (in the bogie boxes) were likely to be far broader in scope than those identified in Sydney due to the thousands of the same tram type operated around the world.

In March 2022, the West Midlands Metro was again forced to suspend its services due to the discovery of more cracks, this time on the bodywork of the trams.

On February 17, 2023, the Department of Transportation of the Philippines revealed that nearly 80 of the new light rail vehicles for Manila's LRT Line 1 cannot be used due to water leaks in the cars.

In February 2023, CAF revealed that the 2020 project for 31 trains for the FEVE narrow-gauge lines in the northern regions of Cantabria and Asturias, Spain, asked for a carriage width that would not fit through the existing 19th-century tunnels. The change in specifications will delay the established delivery date of October 2024 by two years to 2026.

In July 2023, body cracks were discovered in four British Rail Mark 5A "Nova 3" carriage sets, leading to daily inspections of all sets and the temporary withdrawal of five sets from service. That August, the operator TransPennine Express confirmed its intention to cease usage of all sets from the December 2023 timetable change.

Political activity

During the 2019 United Kingdom general election, CAF Rail UK Limited made a donation of £50,000 to the Conservative Party.

In 2019, it entered into litigation that affects its corporate image. Participating in a consortium, JNET, together with the Israeli company Shapir Engineering and Industry, has won a tender promoted by the Israeli Ministry of Transport and Road Safety to supply railway equipment, in addition to building, extending and operating light rail lines from Jerusalem to nearby settlements in disputed territories, in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. In turn, Shapir is on the list of companies that benefit from the occupation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, as denounced by the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Rolling stock

Carriages

EMU and DMU

• Oaris
• Class 598
• IZBAN E22000
• TRD
• TEMD
• TDMD
• Class 440
• Class 444
• Civity
  • Sprinter New Generation
• Civia
• Class 446/447
• AM class EMU, Auckland
• VR Class Sm4
• MTR Adtranz-CAF EMU

Locomotives

• Class 250
• Class 252

For FEVE, now part of Renfe Operadora:

• Electro-diesel locomotive Class 1900
• Class 2600 DMU
• Class 2700 DMU
• Class 2900 DMU

For Euskotren:

• UT200
• UT300
• UT900
• UT950
• UT3500
• Euskotren XXI

For Serveis Ferroviaris de Mallorca:

• DMU Class 61
• EMU Class 71
• EMU Class 81

For other operators:

• BITRAC CC 3600 (Class 601) electro-diesel (Ordered by FESUR, currently operated by Captrain España)

Metro

For Madrid:

• Class 300
• Class 1000
• Class 2000
• Class 3000
• Class 5000
• Class 6000
• Class 8000
• Class 8400

For Barcelona:

• Class 1000
• Class 2000
• Class 3000
• Class 4000
• Class 5000
• Class 6000
• Class S/2100
• Class S/300

For Helsinki:

• M300

For Bucharest:

• BM3

For Amsterdam:

• Metromaterieel S3/M4
• Metromaterieel M7/M8

For Brussels:

• Boa (STIB)

Trams

• Urbos 1 (Tranvía de Bilbao)
• Urbos 2 (Tranvía de Vélez-Málaga, Tranvía de Vitoria and Metro de Sevilla).
• Urbos 3 (Metrocentro de Sevilla, Tranvía de Zaragoza, Metropolitano de Granada, Metro de Málaga and Tranvía Metropolitano de la Bahía de Cádiz).

Outside Spain: trains

• Algeria: DMUs
• Argentina: 9 articulated units for Tren de la Costa
• Australia: NSW TrainLink Regional Train Project
• Brazil: CPTM EMUs and São Paulo Metrô
• France : Confort200
• Germany: Commuter train NEXIO for Schönbuch Railway
• Hungary: MÁV vagon
• Italy: DMUs for Sardinia
• Ireland: Mark 4 coaches for Iarnród Éireann
• Ireland: IE 29000 Class
• Netherlands: Sprinter New Generation for the Nederlandse Spoorwegen.
• Portugal: EMUs (UQE´S) for Lisboa
• Saudi Arabia: SAR/SRO Diesel Push-Pull Trainsets
• UK: British Rail Mark 5 (Caledonian Sleeper)
• UK: British Rail Mark 5A (TransPennine Express)
• UK: British Rail Class 331 (Northern Trains)
• UK: British Rail Class 332 in partnership with Siemens (Heathrow Express)
• UK: British Rail Class 333 in partnership with Siemens (Arriva Trains Northern)
• UK: Northern Ireland Railways Class 3000 and Class 4000
• UK: British Rail Class 397 (TransPennine Express)
• US: Viewliner II (Amtrak)

Newport factory, South Wales, UK

CAF Rolling Stock U.K. Ltd announced in 2017 its UK factory location was selected as Celtic Business Park at Llanwern steelworks in Newport, Wales. It has at least five confirmed UK projects from 2019 onwards and would have been the construction site for their unsuccessful bid to deliver stock for High Speed 2. The site was funded with support from the Welsh Government Inward Investment Programme.

• UK: CAF Oaris (Prospective bid for HS2)
• UK: British Rail Class 195 (Northern Trains)
• UK: British Rail Class 196 (West Midlands Trains)
• UK: British Rail Class 197 (Transport for Wales)

Outside Spain: metros and trams

• Algeria: Algiers Metro
• Argentina: Buenos Aires Underground 5000 and 6000 series; Tren de la Costa
• Australia: Canberra, Newcastle and Sydney light rail.
• Belgium: Brussels Metro M6 and M7 Series
• Brazil: São Paulo Metro
• Brazil: Cuiabá tram
• Brazil: Recife Metro
• Canada: Calgary Transit Urbos 100 (On Order)
• Chile: Santiago Metro
• Colombia: Medellín Metro
• Estonia: Tallinn tram
• Finland: Helsinki Metro, M300 series
• France: Nantes Tramway
• France: Besançon Tramway
• Germany: Freiburg tram and Bonn Stadtbahn (on order)
• Hungary: Debrecen public transport
• Hungary: Budapest public transport
• India: Delhi Airport Metro Express
• Indonesia: Greater Jakarta LRT (built by INKA)
• Italy: Rome Metro
• Italy: Naples Metro
• Luxembourg: fr:Tramway de Luxembourg Urbos 3
• Maurtius: Metro Express Urbos 3
• Mexico: Mexico City Metro (NE-92, NM-02, FE-07, FE-10, NE-16)
• Mexico: Mexico City suburban rail
• Mexico: El Insurgente commuter rail (under construction)
• Netherlands: S3 and M4 units of the Amsterdam Metro and from 2018 the Uithof tram line in Utrecht
• Norway: Oslo trams, delivery from 2022
• Philippines: Manila LRT Line 1 (LRTA 13000 class)
• Philippines: North–South Commuter Railway Airport Express Trains (with Mitsubishi)
• Romania: Bucharest Metro
• Serbia: Belgrade Tram
• Sweden: Stockholm Tram
• Taiwan: Kaohsiung Tram
• Turkey: Antray (Antalya LRT)
• Turkey: Istanbul Metro
• UK: DLR B23 stock (Docklands Light Railway, TfL)
• UK: New West Midlands Metro vehicles
• UK: Edinburgh Trams
• US: Sacramento RT Light Rail, California Class 200
• US: Pittsburgh Light Rail, Pennsylvania Class 4300
• US: Washington Metro, 5000-Series
• US: METRORail, (Houston, TX)
• US: Kansas City Streetcar
• US: Cincinnati Streetcar
• US: MBTA Green Line Type 9 LRV and Type 10 (on order – delivery starting 2027)
• US: MTA Maryland Purple Line (On order)
• Venezuela: Caracas Metro

See also

• Karlos Arguiñano, a former worker at CAF who later became famous as a TV chef.
• Variable gauge axles
• List of rolling stock manufacturers

References

External links

• Official website (in Spanish and English)

1. Renfe
2. Tren Suburbano
3. CAF Urbos
4. Sprinter New Generation
5. MTR Adtranz–CAF EMU
6. Stadler Rail Valencia SAU
7. British Rail Class 197
8. Kolkata Metro Line 2
9. HKL Class M300
10. CAF Civity
11. CAF Newport
12. British Rail Class 397
13. North–South Commuter Railway
14. TCDD HT65000
15. Madrid Metro
16. Solaris Bus & Coach
17. LRT Line 1 (Metro Manila)
18. LRTA 13000 class
19. Kawasaki Heavy Industries & CSR Qingdao Sifang C151B
20. El Insurgente