After more than half a year since their withdrawal from service, the Talgo VI trains of the extinct Intercity Madrid-Algeciras now have a new destination. As ElEconomista.es has exclusively announced, three trainsets will be rented by the Czech operator Leo Express, controlled by Renfe.
According to the same source, each composition will have 13 carriages, and work is currently underway to implement their new livery before moving them to the Velim test track in the Czech Republic.
The rental will be carried out through the specialised company of the Renfe group, RAMF (Renfe Alquiler de Material Ferroviario), as it already does with the 21 Coradia LINT trains used on the Bratislava-Komárno route. In the case of the latter, it does so as an intermediary between Alpha Trains and the operator.
Talgo VI trains are the latest evolution of the Talgo Pendular family. They stand out for their maximum speed of 200 km/h, their sliding wheelset, their automatic doors and their pressurisation system to be able to run on high-speed lines.
They first came to Spain with the famous Talgo 200 service, which ran on both the high-speed Madrid-Seville line and regular lines. Although they are still in service on the Intercity Madrid-Almería and Valencia-Cartagena, their last international gauge service was the Intercity (originally Talgo 200) Madrid-Algeciras.
According to sources close to Renfe, Leo Express will lease the trains that were intended for this service. After their withdrawal from service, they were transferred to Barcelona.