SPAIN: On August 28 the Madrid regional government announced that it will invest €993·7m in new rolling stock for Metro de Madrid. The acquisition will be financed by the region (52%) and the city administration (48%). The metro will initially lease the trains for 17 years, with an option to buy after the lease expires.

CAF is to supply 302 cars worth about €400m, and will also be responsible for maintenance during the lease period at a cost of €200m. This contract represents the final stage of a major rolling stock programme which began in 2004 with the acquisition of 698 cars for €1 038m.

CAF will supply 45 large profile and 15 small profile trainsets. Manufacture will take 22 months, with the fi rst deliveries due in mid-2010.

Of the 234 large profile vehicles, 27 six-car trains are destined to replace the existing Series 5000 units on the circular Line 6. Used by 600 000 passengers a day, Line 6 has one of the highest ridership levels on the network, which now carries around 2·5 million passengers a day. Line 8 will receive 28 additional cars and Line 10 will get 18. Line 9, which is currently being extended to Mirasierra, will also gain 18 vehicles, and the final eight will go to Line 11 to cope with the demand generated by its extension to La Fortuna.

The 15 small profile trains, totalling 68 cars, are needed to increase service frequency and provide additional capacity on Line 2, which is being extended to Las Rosas.

In 2007 the total number of journeys on the Metro de Madrid network, which has 292 stations, exceeded 692 million. The current fleet comprises 2 157 cars, including 334 vehicles delivered during 2007.

• In its first year of operation Madrid’s Metro Ligero Oeste carried 7 million passengers on lines ML2 and ML3.