Alstom and Talgo vie for CP high-speed train contract
France’s Alstom and Spain’s Talgo have bid to supply CP’s future 300 km/h trains, a contract worth up to €584 million and central to Portugal’s rail upgrade.
Alstom and Talgo have submitted bids to supply high-speed trains to CP, Portugal’s state-owned rail operator, in a contract worth up to €584 million that will help shape the country’s rail network from the early 2030s. The tender covers 12 trainsets, with an option for eight more, for services at speeds of up to 300 km/h.
The contract also includes spare parts and full maintenance for 24 months. The first delivery is scheduled for the first quarter of 2031, with the remaining units due at roughly one per month until the third quarter of 2032. The trains must be fully compatible with Portugal’s Iberian-gauge rail network, a key technical factor in the competition.
Talgo is offering its Avril platform, which can run at up to 330 km/h and is available in both fixed-gauge and variable-gauge versions for European and Iberian networks. The Spanish group said its order backlog has reached a record €6.3 billion and expects net revenue of more than €700 million this year, after €618 million in 2025. But it is also trying to move past delivery delays and reliability issues linked to Avril trains supplied to Spain’s Renfe.
Alstom enters the contest with a much larger balance sheet and an established position in Portugal. The French group reported €19.17 billion in revenue, €27.6 billion in new orders and a €104.4 billion backlog in fiscal 2025/26, while net profit more than doubled to over €324 million. It is also expanding locally: after winning a 2023 contract to supply 117 trains to CP with Portugal’s DST, Alstom is building a factory in Guifões, near Porto, that is due to be completed in 2028.
That local footprint could strengthen Alstom’s position in a tender that is strategically important for Portugal’s rail investment plans. Alstom says two-thirds of the trains currently running in Portugal were built by the company or use its technology, while Talgo’s main advantage is a high-speed platform already designed for Iberian-gauge requirements.
Originally published at Eco.pt
