The Spanish railway industry is currently experiencing a veritable boom. Over the last few years, numerous high-speed routes have been built and put into service. Additionally, large sums of money are being spent on the modernization of branch lines.

The Spanish vehicle manufacturer CAF has ordered transmissions and cardan shafts from Voith Turbo for 107 new regional trains – next year, the first of these trains will enter service with RENFE Spanish National Railways.

Voith Turbo will deliver the drive components in early 2008. The delivery comprises of a total of 200 T 211.re4 turbo transmissions, 200 SK-440 final drives, as well as cardan shafts. The components will be installed in 50 DMUs with four driven axles each. The vehicles are designed for maximum speeds of 160 km/h. CAF decided in favor of the diesel-hydraulic Voith solution on the basis of excellent prior experience with this technology.

Another 57 vehicles are designed as EMUs with six driven axles each. The driven axles will be fitted with a total of 342 Voith KE-553 final drives, which were developed by Voith Turbo especially for CAF vehicles. The five-car EMUs offer seats for 263 passengers.

CAF will fit the vehicles with a completely new bogie, and Voith Turbo was included into the projecting phase at an early stage, in order to work out an optimum solution for the interface ‘bogie-final drives.’ The KE-553 design proves that this undertaking was successful. The new EMUs are designed for maximum speeds of up to 160 km/h. They will be put in service on the RENFE rail network.

For Voith Turbo, this is the second major order from CAF within three months, and it enables Voith Turbo to extend its position in an important European growth market.