Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles

Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF), S.A.

Type	Public (BMAD: CAF)
Industry	Manufacturing
Founded	1917 (Compañía Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles)
Headquarters	Beasain, Spain
Key people	Jose María Baztarrica Garijo, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman
Products	Design, manufacture, maintenance and supply of equipment and components for railway systems
Revenue	€ 1,258 million (2009)
Employees	2,000
Website	www.caf.net

Madrid Metro new unit built by CAF

Mass Transit Railway Hongkong A-Stock EMU built by CAF and Adtranz

Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) is a rail equipment manufacturer based in Beasain in the Basque Country, Spain. Equipment manufactured by 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.

CAF has supplied railway rolling stock to a number of major urban transit operators around Europe, the USA, South America, East Asia, India 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 Marquis 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.

Rolling stock

An RT CAF LRV in Sacramento, California

A Turkey TCDD train set, purchased from CAF

Zaragoza tram on trials, model CAF Urbos 3

CAF has supplied light rail vehicles to cities around the world, including Bilbao in their home region of the Basque Country, Valencia's FGV or Zaragoza tram in Spain and Pittsburgh Light Rail and Sacramento Regional Transit in the USA.

CAF is a major manufacturer of metro cars, with systems supplied including the Madrid Metro in Spain, the Valley of Mexico Suburban Rail System (which CAF also built and operates), the Washington Metro in the USA, the Santiago Metro in Chile, and MTR in Hong Kong.

CAF participates in the manufacture of mainline commuter electric multiple units (EMUs), including the Civia family for Spain's RENFE.

CAF also builds mainline passenger coaches, including Arco coaches for RENFE, InterCity coaches for Hungary's MÁV, and Viewliner II cars for Amtrak in the USA.^[1]

CAF participated in the construction of 250 km/h medium-high-speed trains, including the variable-gauge S 120 for RENFE, and the in-house constructed HT65000 fur Turkey's TCDD. CAF is currently developing the Oaris modular platform for top speeds above 300 km/h.

See also

• Karlos Arguiñano, a former worker at CAF who later became famous as a TV chef.
• Variable gauge axles ^[2]

References

1. ^ "Amtrak buying 130 passenger rail cars". Washington Examiner. July 23 2010. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/breaking/amtrak-buying-130-passenger-rail-cars-99122964.html. Retrieved July 223 2010. 
2. ^ "Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles, we create railway solutions ::". CAF. http://www.caf.net/ingles/productos/proyecto.php?cod=6&id=587&sec=desc. Retrieved 2009-07-15. 

External links

• Official site in Spanish
• Official site in English
• CAF's Mexican contract