The Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, has expressed his concern over Talgo’s new delay in the delivery of the 107 series trains committed to Renfe.
During the presentation of the 1 billion euro investment plan to modernise the public operator’ s maintenance depots, Puente regretted that “the 107 should have arrived and we still have no delivery date”.
The minister underlined the urgent need to reinforce Renfe’s high-speed fleet, which has even motivated his negotiations with Siemens in Germany, although he acknowledged that his expectations regarding delivery times for new trains were “higher”.
The contract for the 13 107-series trains was split between 2018 and 2021. First, Renfe awarded the conversion of 156 Talgo series 7 sleeper cars with a maximum speed of 250 km/h to 13 trainsets for daytime AVE services, which are capable of running at 330 km/h.
Subsequently, the contract was awarded to manufacture 26 power heads with the option for 14 more for these trains. These heads must be similar to those of the Avril and interchangeable. And they will allow the 107 series to be extended by 6 additional trainsets and leave 2 tractor units in reserve.
Although the trains should be in service from 2024, Renfe is not yet considering (at least publicly) penalising Talgo for the delays. The operator is prioritising the delivery of the trains as soon as possible.