The Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, through its Secretary of State, José Antonio Santano, has today attended the start of the manufacture of the new trains of metric width for Cantabria and Asturias in the CAF factory located in Beasain (Gipuzkoa), thus fulfilling the commitment made by the minister, Óscar Puente, in his recent visit to the Principality of Asturias.
José Antonio Santano, has highlighted the transcendence of the milestone reached today with the beginning of the manufacture of rolling stock. “It is a milestone fruit of our commitment, our drive, investments and decision-making at the times that are necessary”, he assured during his visit to the factory, in which he was accompanied by the President of the Principality of Asturias, Adrián Barbón; the President of Cantabria, María José Sáenz de Buruaga; the Minister of Transport of the Basque Country, Iñaki Arriola, and the presidents of Renfe, Raül Blanco; and of CAF, Andrés Arizkorreta.
Not in vain, with this contract, Renfe will renew the fleet and improve energy efficiency, reliability and accessibility of the railway service in both regions.
The new trains will run at maximum speeds of 100 km/h and will have more than 200 seats in total in the dual configuration, including seats for people with reduced mobility and a multifunctional area suitable for bicycles or baby carts.
They will also have WIFI and plugs and USB in all seats, as well as systems counting people, information to the traveler and discretionary stop.
In short, “they will be modern and accessible trains, with the current technology to travel always connected. And they will be because we are the government that has decided to invest in them at last, with 300 million euros that includes this Renfe manufacturing contract with CAF”, said the Secretary of State. In addition to the metre-wide trains, the contract awarded to the railway manufacturer includes six alpine trains.
Commitment and dialogue
José Antonio Santano has highlighted the commitment made by all the parties involved in the process, which has required a new agreement between Renfe and CAF to execute the design resulting from the comparative method applied for the first time in Spain, which will allow them to circulate along all the lines of metric width with the best performance.
“A necessary time to be able to advance with the technical and legal security required to successfully complete the largest purchase of trains of metric width in our country. Because, with the activation of the contract clause to extend seven additional trains, in total there would be 38 new trains of metric width”, he stressed.
According to the forecasts of CAF and Renfe, in the first half of 2026 the process of testing on the network will begin, which will allow its commissioning and begin to remove those that now circulate on the network of Asturias or Cantabria.
Investments in the Metric Width Network
The Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, in addition to promoting the modernization of the metric width fleet, has also launched a complete renovation of the lines along which trains circulate.
Thus, some plans of Neighbourhoods have been redefined that now do contemplate the necessary actions to transform it and adapt it to a service of greater performance for its users.
José Antonio Santano has detailed that, in Asturias, investment in the Metric Width Network exceeds 630 million euros, of which 84% (533 million euros) have already been mobilized.
With regard to Cantabria, almost 600 million euros of investment is planned in this same network, of which almost 74% (439 million euros) are already mobilized.
The Ministry is also working on it in the Basque Country, with a broad spectrum of actions under way to improve the Metric Width Network in Bizkaia, the only Basque province where it is present, and which chose around 800,000 travellers in 2023 (15% more than in 2022). To which, undoubtedly, contributes the gratuitousness of the service and the improvements we are already making.
High speed
With regard to high-speed connections to northern Spain, the Ministry of Transport, as Minister Óscar Puente promised a couple of weeks ago, has studied, through Renfe, the possibility of the early morning train leaving at 6 a.m. in the morning from Asturias so that it can arrive in Madrid at around 9.30 a.m. A final decision on the timetables will be made in the next few days.
For his part, the Secretary of State has announced progress in the development of the high-speed line to Cantabria and the Basque Y, as the beginning of the work to tender the drafting of the projects of the high-speed line from Alar del Rey to Reinosa, which will give continuity to the sections that are already being executed from Palencia. “This year will be key to progress in the great railway improvements in Cantabria,” he said.
Regarding the progress in the Basque Y, in addition to the fact that the Environmental Impact Statement of the informative study for the arrival of the high speed to Vitoria-Gasteiz could be ready in the coming weeks, it has reported that this year will end three of the six platform sections that are being executed to complete the Bilbao/Vitoria/Gasteiz branch. All this will be a crucial milestone in the development of the Basque Y “that we must have operational in this decade”.
The Ministry thus confirms its commitment to the Basque Country and to the entire Atlantic Corridor, the driving force behind the economic and social development of the autonomous regions of practically half of the country.