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28
'22
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CAF News
CAF SECURES A CONTRACT IN GERMANY FOR THE EXTENSION OF THE NWL PROJECT (NAHVERKEHR WESTFALEN-LIPPE)
The German operator association Nahverkehr Westfalen-Lippe (NWL), which manages part of the rail transport services in the North Rhine-Westphalia region, has placed its trust in CAF once again, with an agreement to extend the contract awarded last year. In this case, the extension consists of the supply of 10 battery-powered trains, as well as fleet maintenance for a term of 33 years.
This extension amounts to a value of approximately €170 million.
The initial contract was awarded in June 2021, when the German transport authorities VRR (Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr) and NWL awarded CAF the contract to supply 63 battery-powered trains and the associated fleet maintenance services from 2025 to 2058.
The joint boards, NWL and VRR are two of three local rail transport authorities and responsible for managing rail transport in Germany's most populated Federal State, North Rhine-Westphalia, home to almost 18 million inhabitants; the state capital being Düsseldorf. NWL commissions a railway network covering close to 2,000 km of track, on 58 different lines. The 10 new units CAF will supply will run on lines RB68 and RB76 lines, located in an area between cities such as Münster and Gütersloh.
These units which will be supplied by CAF, will boast cutting edge rail technology as they are battery-powered trains which can also run on tracks with a catenary, as an alternative to the current diesel units. The new trains are envisaged to be in operation over the course of 2025 and the beginning of 2026, forming part of the plans implemented by the German federal government intended to decarbonise rail transport.
The CAF Group is again evidencing its strong commitment towards the transition towards sustainable transport, having developed a variety of solutions for operators to improve operating efficiency whilst being environmentally friendly in both the train and bus sectors.
This also represents another milestone in the CAF Group's success in the discerning German market, and adds to other projects currently underway in Germany, such as the supply of 51 LRVs for the Ruhrbahn GmbH operator in Essen, the extension of 8 trams for the city of Freiburg, as well as the recent award of the contract for the manufacture of 22 LRVs for the city of Bonn. Not to mention the CAF Group's significant operations in bus market of this country, where it is currently delivering zero emission vehicles to the cities of Dortmund, Cologne, Bonn and Hamburg.
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