CAF has secured two new contracts in France

The Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region has placed an orderd to the CAF-Alstom consortium for 14 Coradia Polyvalent regional trains: five six-car Intercités EMUs, with a seating capacity of 355 passengers, and nine four-car TER EDMUs, with 228 seats. 

This contract stems from the agreements in place between CAF and Alstom following CAF’s acquisition of the Reichshoffen plant in 2022. Accordingly, CAF is responsible for the design and manufacturing of the units in this platform, while Alstom supplies some of the equipment. To date, the various French regions have ordered almost 450 units of this type, with 400 in commercial service. The new regional trains for the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region will complement its current fleet of 48 trains.

The contract awarded by SMMAG (Syndicat Mixte des Mobilités de L'Aire Grenobloise, Mixed Union of Mobility of the Grenoble Area) involves supplying of 38 Urbos trams, with an option to for up to nine ones. They will gradually replace the trams currently in operation starting in 2028, in line with SMMAG's overall strategy, the main goal of which is to provide an increasingly dynamic service tailored to user needs. The new trams for Grenoble, known as the capital of the French Alps, follows to the contracts for Marseille, Montpellier and Tours.

The Urboses for Grenoble will be tailored to meet the specific requirements of its metropolitan area in terms of accessibility, increased capacity, comfort and operational optimisation. The trams, fully air-conditioned and 100 % low-floor design, will accommodate 281 passengers, of them 82 seated. They will facilitate access and movement for people with reduced mobility and wheelchair users. They will also feature 12 double-leaf entrance doors. The trams will be built at CAF’s Bagnères-de-Bigorre plant.

The latter is now CAF's expertise centre in France for manufacturing trams and short trains (under 50 m). The Reichshoffen plant, on the other hand, is primarily dedicated to long trains over 50 m in length. Since 2022, CAF has invested almost 10 million EUR annually in the modernisation and expansion of both works to meet the most demanding customer requirements.