Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles

Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (Grupo CAF, literally "Construction & Other Railway Services") is a Spanish publicly listed company which manufactures railway vehicles and equipment and buses through its Solaris Bus & Coach subsidiary. It is based in Beasain, Basque Autonomous Community. Equipment manufactured by Grupo CAF includes light rail vehicles, rapid transit trains, railroad cars and locomotives, as well as variable gauge axles that can be fitted on any existing truck or bogie.
Over the 20 years from the early 1990s, CAF benefited from the rail investment boom in its home market in Spain to become a world player with a broad technical capability, able to manufacture almost any type of rail vehicle. CAF has supplied railway rolling stock to a number of major urban transit operators around Europe, the US, South America, East Asia, India, Australia and North Africa.
History.
"CAF" was an acronym for the earlier name of Compañía Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles, as well as for "Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles".
Fábrica de Hierros San Martín.
In 1860 Domingo Goitia, Martín Usabiaga and José Francisco Arana established this company, whose main activity was puddling furnaces and cylinder rolling.
La Maquinista Guipuzcoana.
In 1892 Francisco de Goitia (Domingo Goitia's son and heir) joined the Marquess of Urquijo to set up La Maquinista Guipuzcoana, whose main activity was the operation of machinery and the forging and construction of railway rolling stock.
In 1898 it set up its plant in Beasain, Gipuzkoa. In 1905 it changed its name to Fábrica de Vagones de Beasain (FVB).
Compañía Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles.
Compañía Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) was founded in 1917, specializing in freight car production and with a total of 1,600 employees.
In 1940 the Irun factory was set up, following the expansion of activity after the Spanish Civil War (CAF took part in reconstructing the Spanish rail fleet).
In 1954 CAF took over Material Móvil y Construcciones (MMC) from Zaragoza (Aragon), a company with extensive experience in manufacturing long-distance and subway trains.
Since 1958 the company has modernized and enlarged its Beasain plant and expanded its activity to include all kinds of rolling stock. In line with this, in 1969 CAF created its Research and Development Unit, which increased the company's competitiveness and intensified the focus on in-house technology.
Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles.
In 1971 the existing Compañía Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) merged with Material Móvil y Construcciones (MMC) and the company adopted its current name "Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles".
Subsidiaries.
CAF U.S.A., a wholly owned subsidiary of CAF, was incorporated in 1998 and is based in Elmira, New York. It manufactures rolling stock for the North American market at a plant in Elmira that the company acquired from ADtranz in 2000. The company from Beasain continued its expansion during the third millennium.
On 24 May 2019, it announced the acquisition of the Swedish company Euromaint at a cost of circa €80 million, following other international contracts to supply Flemish and English railway and underground networks in 2017.
CAF Rolling Stock U.K. Ltd. is the CAF subsidiary in the United Kingdom. Its factory is based at Celtic Springs Business Park, at Llanwern steelworks near Newport, Wales as a result of an agreement made between CAF and the Welsh Government. The Newport factory will build stock for Transport for Wales, Northern, the Docklands Light Railway, and potentially High Speed 2 if CAF win the bid process.
Political activity.
During the 2019 United Kingdom general election, CAF Rail UK Limited made a donation of £50,000 to the Conservative Party.
In 2019, it has entered into litigation that affects its corporate image. Participating in a consortium, JNET, together with the Israeli company Shapir Engineering and Industry, has won a tender promoted by the Israeli Ministry of Transport and Road Safety to supply railway equipment, in addition to building, extending and operating light rail lines from Jerusalem to nearby settlements in disputed territories, in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. In turn, Shapir is listed on the list of companies that benefit from the occupation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, as denounced by the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Rolling stock.
Locomotives.
For FEVE, now part of Renfe Operadora:
For Euskotren:
For Serveis Ferroviaris de Mallorca:
For other operators:
Metro.
For Madrid:
For Barcelona:
For Helsinki:
Outside Spain: trains.
Newport factory, South Wales, UK.
CAF Rolling Stock U.K. Ltd announced in 2017 its UK factory location was selected as Celtic Business Park at Llanwern steelworks in Newport, Wales. It has at least five confirmed UK projects from 2019 onwards and will be the site for their bid to design stock for High Speed 2. The site was funded with support from the Welsh Government Inward Investment Programme.