Talgo en Renfe agree on November deliveries of Avril high-speed trains
Talgo will deliver the first units of a new batch of 30 Avril high-speed trains in November as per a new deadline agreed upon this week with Renfe. The manufacturer settled on the new date following consultations with the other stakeholders. The trains were initially forecast to make a January 2021 debut.
Renfe has 30 units under order to the tune of almost 1.29 billion euros. How many units Talgo will deliver in November remains unclear. The manufacturer did say that the deliveries will be spread out over a longer period of time. The initial delays led to a spat between Renfe and Talgo last year, with the operator considering actions to extract financial compensation from Talgo, as its summer time table came under strain due to the late deliveries. Talgo did not allude to the reason for the delayed delivery in the statement released.
The new Talgo trains will run as the Renfe Series 106 and are special in that they can achieve a top speed of 360 kilometres per hour regardless of track width. In fact, a Talgo Avril set a new speed record on the Iberian Width on a track in Galicia, Spain, in September 2022. On the 1,668mm-Iberian gauge, the current limit is 220 kilometres per hour. The record was set as part of the commission and certification process of 15 new train sets. This process is exhaustive because the Talgo Avril is a complex piece of rolling stock.
The Talgo Avril comprises 12 cars for a total length of 200 metres per train set. It features a low floor for easy access. The platform is light weight, which reduces energy consumption.
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