Luxtram’s Board of Directors announced yesterday that it will entrust the construction of the tram trains of the future tramway in the Grand-Duchy to Spanish manufacturer CAF (Construcciones y auxiliar de ferrocarrilles), with an initial order of 21 trains at a value of €83M.
The agreement with CAF is subject to legal recourse provisions in public procurement. The Spanish company, headquartered near Bilbao, is a rail manufacturer and provider, with a fleet of 230 trams currently operating in many European cities, such as Stockholm, Birmingham, Nantes, Besançon, Zaragoza, as well as an underway project for a tram network in Sydney, Australia.
In October last year, Luxtram launched a call for proposals to the open market, in search of a viable partner supplier. The proposal, which was presented to seven different manufacturers, contained very specific, rigorous requirements, including a suspension of the overhead line system between the Red Bridge and the central train station.
CAF beat out offers from Alstom and Stadler, with Luxtram grading their offer as technically superior, as well as more financially beneficial.
The twenty-one trams commissioned will hold a high capacity – up to 450 people. The first tram rails are scheduled to be laid in Q1 2016 and the delivery of the first train is set for the start of 2017, in order to ensure the operation of the planned first phase of the project – between Luxexpo and the Red Bridge for the second half of 2017.
The first details on the specific tram train design will be announced in the coming weeks.
