‘Our agreement with Talgo holds’: Le Train keeps faith in troubled Avril for French launch

FRANCE: When Renfe indefinitely postponed its expansion to Paris, it also recalled its Talgo Avril test fleet, jeopardising the approval programme French start-up Le Train was relying on. Despite that setback and the Avril’s recurring bogie problems, Le Train CEO Alain Getraud is still backing the Spanish trains to take on SNCF. Reorganising the process is simply ‘a work of adjustment’, the company tells Railway Gazette International, and ‘our agreement with Talgo holds’.

Le Train, the first of a clutch of private high speed rail contenders to receive an operating licence, selected Spanish rolling stock manufacturer Talgo in 2023 to build its prospective €350m fleet of up to 10 Avril trainsets. The single-deck trains were already on order for Spanish state-owned operator Renfe as a cornerstone of its offering in Spain’s newly liberalised high speed market, and were central to the Spanish incumbent’s plans to expand further into France. First, however, the type had to receive authorisation to operate across the border.

The French start-up had chosen the Talgo trains in part because it expected the Avril platform to have secured French approval by the time its own fleet was ready to launch. Renfe had been pursuing French authorisation for its own Avril fleet, designated Series 106, since 2022, with the trains intended to support its expansion towards Paris, including services between the French capital and Lyon. Le Train would essentially be able to bypass the heavy lifting of French certification by waiting for Renfe to complete the process first.

This story was originally published by Railway Gazette. Read the full story at Railway Gazette →