2023-05-25 21:37:10
talgo has set a date for the delivery to Renfe of the first units of its very high speed trains Avril. The manufacturer announced yesterday that it will make the first units of the train “ready for commercial operation” available to the Spanish operator in November. However, it warned that said date “will be reached as long as the other actors participating in this process comply with the deadlines that they have provided to Talgo to achieve said objective and by virtue of which Talgo proposes this date.” The commissioning of the thirty very high-speed trains that make up Renfe’s 106 Series will be staggered, according to the manufacturer.
The arrival of the Avrils is essential for Renfe to carry its high-speed services to the interior of Galicia. Although the infrastructure in this autonomous community was inaugurated at the end of 2021, the reality is that, for the moment, you can only go by high-speed train to Ourense. The reason is that, within this community, the tracks are Iberian gauge, different from the one used by high-speed trains, which is international. For this reason, to complete the route, trains with axles of variable gauge capable of adapting to both sizes are necessary, such as the Avril.
In any case, It is not clear if the delivery of the first units of this model in November also implies that this will be the date on which they begin to provide commercial services in the interior of Galicia.. First, because as Talgo herself makes clear in her note, not the entire approval process depends on her. In addition, together with the approval of the rolling stock, it is also necessary train drivers on the routes they are going to drive it on, which takes several weeks. And from Renfe they do not clarify if this aspect has already been completed and they limit themselves to referring to the Talgo note.
Deliveries of the Avril, which were scheduled to begin in early 2021, have been successively delayed due to various problems that have had to do not only with its current approval process but also with the manufacturing process. The outbreak of the coronavirus caused bottlenecks in the logistics chain that, according to the company, delayed its manufacturing plans. Added to this, according to Talgo, was the design change requested by the operator in 2019. Renfe, however, was not convinced by Talgo’s explanations. To such an extent that he has claimed a compensation of 116 million euros that the manufacturer assumes will have to negotiate, as reported by LA RAZÓN, which also announced that the trains would not be available for the summer season.
Regarding its lengthy approval process, Talgo stressed that if it is already complex in a high-speed train, in one of the Avril’s characteristics it is even more so due to the new technologies it equips. In addition, the manufacturer has stressed, it must be “exhaustive” as it is a technically completely new train and capable of traveling at 360 kilometers per hour on any gauge, an unprecedented event in the world. The company also assured months ago that it had suffered “limitations in access to the railway network to carry out the train tests”.
#arrival #AVE #interior #Galicia #enters #final #stretch.. #remains #date