CAF is enjoying a very successful 2022 with the news of its two latest contracts alongside a substantial number of orders already placed and worth an impressive combined €10.7 billion at the close of the first half of the year.
The Hannover contract will see CAF supply 42 TW 4000 Light Rail Vehicles for ÜSTRA Hannoversche Verkehrsbetriebe AG, which is the public transport operator for the city. The contract also features an opportunity to extend the number of Light Rail Vehicles to be made by a further 233 extra units.
The city's Stadtbahn network will see the first of the Light Rail Vehicles delivered during the latter part of 2025. As the capital state of Lower Saxony, Hannover has a population of over one million people in the metropolitan and is one of Germany's key industrial and service hubs.
The order complements Hannover's upgrade to its current fleet with older models TW 6000 and TW 2000 models set to be replaced with state-of-the-art Light Rail Vehicles which will see energy usage cut with the latest technology and vehicle weight reduction. The new Light Rail Vehicles will also bring a better passenger experience with improved accessibility, passenger information systems and onboard comfort.
Important milestones have been achieved by CAF recently with regard to the German market which is the biggest accessible rail market across the world. Contracts signed with CAF in Germany include transport operators Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Rhur and Nahverkehr Westfalen-Lippe which will see 63 battery-powered trains supplied. CAF Light Rail Vehicles have also been ordered for the cities of Essen and Bonn alongside trams for Freiburg and EMUs for Schönbuchbahn. Further to these contracts, CAF has recently acquired the intellectual property of the Talent 3 train platform, which is geared to the German and Central European markets and also includes hiring key engineering personnel involved with it, bringing increases in the capabilities of CAF within these markets.
In Australia, CAF has won a contract extension in Canberra to continue with the operation of its tramway line, Canberra Metro Operation and also for the supply of 5 extra trams which will include On-Board Energy Storage Systems (OESS) for the sections of track which are catenary-free. The 5 new trams will join 14 units which were supplied to the Australian capital. The agreement will also see CAF undertake maintenance for the new units alongside upgrades to the previously supplied fleet to include the OESS accumulation system. The upgraded equipment will be very similar to that of the newer vehicles and will enable the whole fleet to operate on catenary-free track for the city's light rail line.
The 5 new trams will operate on the current line which connects the Gungahlin area to the city centre and also on its extension in the future which will work towards the anticipated increase in demand.
CAF also supplied the tramway for Newcastle, Australia, which was commissioned in 2019 and was the very first catenary-free tramway for the country alongside the Parramatta tramway which is set to be operational from 2023 to 2024 and marks CAF's third project using the OESS system in Australia.
