The €690m contract is expected to be signed in December. CAF's partners are Thales, Isolux- Corsán and AZVI. According to El Economista, a group led Bombardier submitted the highest-value bid, while the CAF group beat the Alstom-led group on points scoring 92.6 compared with 86.2 points for Alstom.
CAF will supply a fleet of 30 five-car EMUs, each with room for 700 passengers. The trains will have wide inter-car gangways and seats for passengers with reduced mobility. CAF Signalling will be responsible for the ERTMS signalling, ATO equipment, and the control centre. The contract also includes the power supply and substations.
The 57.7km line will run from Observatorio, at the southwestern end of metro Line 1 in Mexico City, to Toluca. Trains will operate at a maximum speed of 160km/h and complete the journey in 39 minutes, which SCT says will be about 90 minutes faster than by road. The service is expected to carry around 270,000 passengers per day when it opens in 2017.
