The French private company Le Train announced on Monday the order of ten high-speed trains from the Spanish railway manufacturer Talgo, for around 300 million euros, with the objective of launching them on the rails in France in 2025.

Born in Charente in 2020, the company wants to "operate high-speed intra and interregional traffic starting with the Great West", with among the first services Bordeaux-Angoulême, Bordeaux-Nantes and Bordeaux-Rennes, with extensions to Arcachon, a indicated its general manager Alain Getraud.

Trains equipped to carry surfboards

The company wants to offer a “different” and “complementary” offer to that of the SNCF, by making better use of the new Sud Europe Atlantique line (Tours-Bordeaux) opened in 2017, which according to Le Train is underused.

The contract with Talgo, selected following a call for tenders launched in early 2022, includes the order of ten Avril-type trains with the possibility of buying more for ten years, maintenance for thirty years and the creation of a research and development unit tasked with thinking about “trains of the future”, according to Alain Getraud.

These trains, built in the Spanish Basque Country, will benefit from a "tailor-made design", will allow the loading of bulky objects, such as surfboards, and will offer spaces for 40 bicycles.

They can drive at 320 km/h.

The company hopes to double its fleet quickly

If he did not want to reveal the exact amount of the order, the leader indicated that it was necessary to count “around 300 million euros”.

The delivery schedule “remains to be refined.

(…) We still hope for penetration into the Great West in 2025,” he said.

But "building a railway company only for the Great West and only for ten trains would make no sense", remarked Alain Getraud, who hopes to be able to "double this fleet in the near future, at least".

He does not despair of also being able to buy second-hand high-speed trains, even though his agreement in principle to this effect with the SNCF is slow to materialize.

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