STADLER has signed a strategic agreement with Salvador Caetano, Portugal’s largest bus manufacturer, to jointly build a new rolling stock assembly plant at Ovar south of Porto.
The new factory would undertake local production of the 117 EMUs that Stadler is currently bidding to supply to Portuguese Trains (CP), competing with five other shortlisted bidders for CP’s largest fleet order to date worth up to €819m.
The contract, expected to be awarded shortly, also includes the construction of a new rolling stock maintenance facility which Stadler and Salvador Caetano say will be located in the Guifões district of Porto.
In October 2020 CP awarded Stadler its first contract to supply Flirt EMUs for operation on 1668mm-gauge, ordering 22 three-car trains for €158m.
Stadler is supplying 10 EMUs and 12 bi-mode Flirts to CP and will maintain the new fleet for at least four years.
The Swiss rolling stock manufacturer is also supplying 14 three-car trains to Lisbon Metro, ordered in May 2021 under a contract worth €114.5m. Provisional acceptance of the new fleet is planned for 2027.
“I am convinced that the alliance with one of the most important companies in Portugal substantially improves our proposal for the supply of new trains to CP,” says Stadler executive chairman, Mr Peter Spuhler.
“The agreement will give a considerable boost to the Portuguese railway manufacturing industry, which currently does not have any train factories, accelerating the participation of Portuguese companies in the supply of components from other industrial sectors.”
For detailed data on fleet orders from around the world, subscribe to IRJ Pro.
