Recent deals and tenders in the urban rail transport market.
Poland — Pesa has handed over the last of 40 three-section Twist 146N trams to Wrocław, completing deliveries that began in 2024. The order cost €80 mln, with €56 mln of that coming as co-financing from European and national programmes.
Bulgaria — Spain’s CAF, the Czech Republic’s Škoda Group and Poland’s Pesa have all signalled their willingness to supply Sofia with 130 trams for €500–630 mln. In a market consultation run by the municipality, the three offered 50 unidirectional trams for the city’s unusual 1,009 mm gauge at €3.5–4.8 mln apiece and 30 bidirectional trams of the same gauge at €3.9–5 mln apiece. On the 1,435 mm gauge, the 50 vehicles were quoted at €4.2–4.8 mln for a unidirectional tram and €4.4–5 mln for a bidirectional one. Taken together, and with maintenance and depot refurbishment included, the potential contracts could be worth as much as €820 mln. The city hopes to fund them through EU money or loans.
Türkiye’s oldest metro trains, built by ABB, in on the M1 line of Istanbul. Source: kosteg/TransPhoto
Türkiye — Istanbul’s municipal council has approved borrowing of €871 mln to buy 422 metro cars, a figure that covers VAT and insurance premiums. The financing could come from external and domestic borrowing or a bond issue. Of the total, 150 cars are earmarked for the extension of the driverless M5 line, which runs 25 CAF trains today; the other 272 are destined to replace old rolling stock on the M1 line.
Poland — Warsaw has relaunched its tender for up to 62 trams. The contract will carry a firm order of 20 vehicles for delivery within three years, funded under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (KPO). The bidirectional low-floor trams, up to 33 m long, will need at least 42 seats. The earlier tender, cancelled, had attracted bids from Škoda Group and South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem.
CRRC light rail train for Mexico City. Source: CRRC
Mexico — Another 17 CRRC trains have entered service on Mexico City’s light rail line, joining an earlier batch of nine that has run since 2024. The Chinese builder is pushing hard into the Mexican market, picking up orders for the urban networks of Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey, as well as commuter trains for the capital’s metropolitan area — and is now planning to expand its plant in Querétaro to keep pace.
