Talgo, a leading company in the design, manufacture, and maintenance of high-speed lightweight rail vehicles, has secured a new order worth €1.3 billion ($1.53 billion) for the manufacture and maintenance of 20 new high-speed trains for Saudi Arabia Railways (SAR). This comes after Talgo's successful delivery of 35 trains to SAR in 2018.

The contract has been placed by the Kingdom’s Ministries of Transportation-Logistics and Finance, and through the Spanish Consortium which is in charge of the Phase II of the “Haramain High Speed ​​Railway” project, of which Talgo is a part.

The Haramain Railway line, a 450-km-long network, is built and operated to virtually the same standards as the Spanish high-speed rail network, with a maximum commercial speed of 300 km/h and ERTMS level 2 signaling, said senior Saudi officials.

As part of the contract to maintain the trains, Talgo also operates two maintenance facilities in Saudi Arabia, employing more than 270 people.

These trains will be deployed on the rail line connecting the cities of Makkah, Madinah and Jeddah. 

Each train will comprise two power cars (locomotives) and 13 coaches with a capacity of 417 seats distributed in two classes, in addition to dedicated spaces for catering and passengers with reduced mobility.

The Spanish group pointed out that with this new win, its order book will soar to a record high of nearly €6 billion.

According to SAR, the acquisition of these 20 new trains is part of the kingdom’s plans to continue expanding its passenger services and meet growing demand. These will have equivalent characteristics to the 35 previously manufactured by Talgo, which the Spanish Consortium has operated in Saudi Arabia since 2018. 

Currently, the Saudi operator of the line has a fleet of 35 Talgo 350 trains with a maximum commercial speed of 300 km/h, achieving excellent operational results and customer satisfaction.

In this regard, Phase II of the ‘Haramain High Speed ​​Railway’ project has been extended for the operation and maintenance period, said senior SAR officials. 

Under this new contract, Talgo will be responsible for maintaining all the trains that will make up the expanded fleet - the 35 existing trains and the 20 additional ones - until 2033, with the possibility of extending the contract until 2038.

The 20 new trains will have full platform-level access and no steps inside the train, an exclusive feature of Talgo trains. This allows for faster passenger movement during peak demand and facilitates the movement of passengers and their luggage, said the SAR officials.

These new trains will increase the current fleet used on the line, which operate more than 100 services on a typical day with Talgo trains, a number that jumps to more than 140 daily services during the annual Hajj pilgrimage season. This is a period of increased demand: in 2025 only, nearly 2 million passengers were transported during Hajj, they added.-TradeArabia News Service