Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (Grupo CAF, lit. 'Construction and 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, Spain. 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[citation needed] existing truck or bogie.
| Company type | Sociedad Anónima |
|---|---|
| BMAD: CAF | |
| ISIN | ES0121975009 |
| Industry | Manufacturing |
| Founded | 1917 (Compañía Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles) |
| Headquarters | Beasain, Basque Country (autonomous community), Spain |
Number of locations | 11 factories, including: Beasain (Basque Country) Zaragoza (Aragon) Irún (Basque Country) Linares (Andalusia) Hortolandia (Brazil) Huehuetoca (Mexico) Elmira, New York (US) Bagnères-de-Bigorre (France) Newport, South Wales (UK) |
Key people | Jose María Baztarrica Garijo, Andrés Arizkorreta (Chief Executive Officer and Chairman) |
| Products | Design, manufacture, maintenance and supply of equipment and components for railway systems |
| Revenue | €2.943 billion (2021) |
| €165 million (2021) | |
| €89 million (2021) | |
| Total assets | €4.269 billion (2021) |
| Total equity | €740.4 million (2021) |
| Owner | Public; Employees via Cartera Social S.A. (25%); Kutxabank (14%) |
Number of employees | 13,284(2021) |
| Website | cafmobility.com |
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 Feres.
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.
Since the early 1990s, CAF has also been active internationally. In the early 2000s, CAF supplied high-speed trains to the Spanish RENFE and in 2005, high-speed trains were exported for the first time (to Türkiye).
In 2018, CAF took over the Polish bus manufacturer Solaris. The company also acquired the Talent 3 platform from competitor Bombardier Transportation in 2022, as well as the Coradia Polyvalent platform and the plant in Reichshoffen from train manufacturer Alstom. This was a condition imposed by the European Commission's competition authority for the approval of the 2021 takeover of Bombardier Transportation by Alstom.
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 has built stock for Transport for Wales, Arriva Rail North, the Docklands Light Railway, and potentially High Speed 2 if CAF win the bid process. They also donated £150,000 to the Conservative Party.
CAF Signalling was fined in 2021 with 1.7 million euros by the Spanish commission on markets and competition because of its participation in a cartel with other 7 international companies which colluded in tenders over Spanish rail infrastructure.
Political activity
During the 2019 United Kingdom general election, CAF Rail UK Limited made a donation of £50,000 to the Conservative Party.
United Nations blacklisting
In 2019, CAF was referred to Spain's OECD National Contact Point for a violation of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct. As part of the 'TransJerusalem J-Net' consortium with Israeli company Shapir Engineering and Industry, who are on the United Nations Human Rights Council list of companies that benefit from the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, CAF won a tender by the Israeli Ministry of Transport and Road Safety to supply railway equipment and to build, extend and operate light rail lines from Jerusalem to nearby Israeli settlements within the West Bank.
In 2025, reports by Amnesty International and United Nations rapporteur Francesca Albanese condemned CAF's involvement in the Jerusalem Light Rail project. In October 2025, CAF was formally listed by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights as being a company conducting business in Israeli settlements within the occupied Palestinian territories.
Rolling stock
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. The specific problem is: There are multiple units listed under the "Locomotives" section, and a general cleanup is needed. (September 2021) |
Carriages
EMU and DMU
- Oaris
- Class 598
- IZBAN E22000
- TRD
- TEMD
- TDMD
- Class 440
- Class 444
- Civity
- Sprinter New Generation
- Civia
- Class 446/447
- AM class EMU, Auckland
- VR Class Sm4
- Inneo
Locomotives
- Renfe Class 250
- Renfe Class 252
For FEVE, now part of Renfe Operadora:
- Electro-diesel locomotive Class 1900
- Class 2600 DMU
- Class 2700 DMU
- Class 2900 DMU
For Euskotren:
- UT200
- UT300
- UT900
- UT950
- UT3500
- Euskotren XXI
For Serveis Ferroviaris de Mallorca:
- DMU Class 61
- EMU Class 71
- EMU Class 81
For other operators:
- BITRAC CC 3600 (Class 601) electro-diesel (Ordered by FESUR, currently operated by Captrain España)
Metros in Spain
For Madrid:
- Class 300
- Class 1000
- Class 2000
- Class 3000
- Class 5000
- Class 6000
- Class 8000
- Class 8400
For Barcelona:
- Class 1000
- Class 2000
- Class 3000
- Class 4000
- Class 5000
- Class 6000
- Class S/2100
- Class S/300
Trams in Spain
- Urbos 1 (Tranvía de Bilbao)
- Urbos 2 (Tranvía de Vélez-Málaga, Tranvía de Vitoria and Metro de Sevilla).
- Urbos 3 (Metrocentro de Sevilla, Tranvía de Zaragoza, Metropolitano de Granada, Tranvía de Vitoria, Metro de Málaga and Tranvía Metropolitano de la Bahía de Cádiz).
Trains outside Spain
- Algeria: DMUs
- Argentina: 9 articulated units for Tren de la Costa
- Australia: New South Wales R sets
- Brazil: CPTM EMUs and São Paulo Metrô
- France: Confort200
- Germany: Commuter train NEXIO for Schönbuch Railway
- Hungary: MÁV vagon
- Italy: DMUs for Sardinia
- Ireland: Mark 4 coaches for Iarnród Éireann
- Ireland: IE 29000 Class
- Netherlands: Sprinter New Generation for the Nederlandse Spoorwegen.
- Norway: SL18
- Portugal: EMUs (UQE´S) for Lisboa
- Saudi Arabia: SAR/SRO Diesel Push-Pull Trainsets
- UK: British Rail Mark 5 (Caledonian Sleeper)
- UK: British Rail Mark 5A (until 2023: TransPennine Express, From 2026: Chiltern Railways)
- UK: British Rail Class 331 (Northern Trains)
- UK: British Rail Class 332 in partnership with Siemens (Heathrow Express)
- UK: British Rail Class 333 in partnership with Siemens (Arriva Trains Northern)
- UK: Northern Ireland Railways Class 3000 and Class 4000
- UK: British Rail Class 397 (TransPennine Express)
- US: Viewliner II (Amtrak)
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 would have been the construction site for their unsuccessful bid to deliver stock for High Speed 2. The site was funded with support from the Welsh Government Inward Investment Programme.
- UK: CAF Oaris (Prospective bid for HS2)
- UK: British Rail Class 195 (Northern Trains)
- UK: British Rail Class 196 (West Midlands Trains)
- UK: British Rail Class 197 (Transport for Wales)
Metros and trams outside Spain
- Algeria: Algiers Metro
- Argentina: Buenos Aires Underground 5000 and 6000 series; Tren de la Costa
- Australia: Canberra, Newcastle and Sydney light rail.
- Belgium: Brussels Metro M6 and M7 Series
- Brazil: São Paulo Metro
- Brazil: Cuiabá tram
- Brazil: Recife Metro
- Canada: Calgary Transit Urbos 100 (On Order)
- Chile: Santiago Metro
- Colombia: Medellín Metro
- Ecuador: Quito Metro
- Estonia: Tallinn tram
- Finland: Helsinki Metro, M300 series
- France: Nantes Tramway
- France: Besançon Tramway
- France: Tours tramway (on order)
- Germany: Freiburg tram and Bonn Stadtbahn (on order)
- Hong Kong: Adtranz-CAF EMU in partnership with Adtranz (MTR Tung Chung line and Airport Express line)
- Hungary: Debrecen public transport
- Hungary: Budapest public transport
- India: Delhi Airport Metro Express
- Italy: Bologna tramway
- Italy: Rome Metro and trams in Rome
- Italy: Naples Metro
- Luxembourg: fr:Tramway de Luxembourg Urbos 3
- Mauritius: Metro Express Urbos 3
- Mexico: Mexico City Metro (NE-92, NM-02, FE-07, FE-10, NE-16)
- Mexico: Mexico City suburban rail
- Mexico: El Insurgente commuter rail
- Netherlands: S3/M4 and M7 units of the Amsterdam Metro
- Netherlands: Utrecht sneltram Urbos
- Norway: Oslo trams, delivery from 2022
- Philippines: Manila LRT Line 1 (LRTA 13000 class)
- Philippines: North–South Commuter Railway Airport Express Trains (with Mitsubishi)
- Romania: Bucharest Metro Line M2 (Inneo)
- Serbia: Belgrade Tram
- Sweden: Stockholm Tram
- Taiwan: Kaohsiung Tram
- Türkiye: Antray (Antalya LRT)
- Türkiye: M4 (Istanbul Metro)
- UK: DLR B23 stock (Docklands Light Railway, TfL)
- UK: New West Midlands Metro vehicles
- UK: Edinburgh Trams
- USA: SacRT light rail, California Class 200
- USA: Pittsburgh Light Rail, Pennsylvania Class 4300
- USA: Washington Metro, 5000-Series
- USA: METRORail, (Houston, TX)
- USA: Kansas City Streetcar
- USA: Cincinnati Streetcar
- USA: MBTA Green Line Type 9 LRV and Type 10 (on order – delivery starting 2027)
- USA: MTA Maryland Purple Line (On order, 5 delivered as of October 15th)
- Venezuela: Caracas Metro 60000 series
See also
- Karlos Arguiñano, a former worker at CAF who later became famous as a TV chef.
- Variable gauge axles
- List of rolling stock manufacturers
wikipedia, wiki, encyclopedia, book, library, article, read, free download, Information about Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles, What is Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles? What does Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles mean?