Global high speed train manufacturers announce one by one their plans for the approaching tender for 80 high speed train set.

First Talgo and then Bombardier announced their local partners in Turkey for the soon-to-open tender of TCDD for 80 high speed train sets which is worth around € 3 bn.

Production in Turkey, 53% local supply, local partner are announced as the prerequisites of this huge tender. Thus, global high speed manufacturers, one after the other, announced their intents or plans for the tender. Here are the main players expected to be involved in the tender:

Siemens

Having already awarded 7-train-sets tender second of which has recently delivered to Turkey, Siemens is one of the assertive candidates of the tender. Siemens has its own company in Turkey, but still needs a partner for production. Company is heard to be close to an agreement with one. Siemens also announced a plan for local production of trams in Gebze.

Talgo

Talgo was the first to announce its local partner, Tumosan, an engine company in Turkey. Talgo and Tumosan step forward by bringing the basic team together. Talgo trains are push&pull trains, which may end up with elimination from the tender if TCDD obligates distributed systems.

Who will participate 80 HST sets tender of TCDD?

Bombardier

Bombardier announced its local partners a few day ago as Bozankaya. Bozankaya has been producing tram and bus bodies in its plants in Turkey and Germany. The company was awarded trambus for Malatya (long bus running with electricity) and trams for Kayseri. Trambuses have already started running, and trams are expected to be delivered within this year. Bombardier has also supplied trams for Eskisehir, Istanbul and Bursa.

Alstom

Alstom had announced that they are looking for a partner in Turkey for high speed train tender of TCDD. The company has strong ties with Turkey, had recently selected Istanbul as its regional headoffice for Middle East and Africa. Alstom’s railcars are being used in Istanbul. The company is supplying bogies for its high speed trains from Durmazlar, Turkish rail car producer in Bursa. A partnership with Durmazlar would not be suprising.

CAF

Although CAF was the first company to sell high speed train sets to Turkey, nothing about partnership nor investment plan is announced for this tender. In additon to 12 CAF high speed train sets, CAF has supplied the second biggest urban rail fleet in Turkey, 243 rail cars used in Izmir Suburban (Izban) and Istanbul Metro.

AnsaldoBreda

AnsaldoBreda is mainly known with its trams in Turkey (Ankara, Kayseri, Samsun) but is also famous with recently introduced high speed train Frecciarossa 1000 together with Bombardier. We’ll soon see how acquisition by Hitachi will affect their strategy in Turkey. If AnsaldoBreda participates the tender, their partner for production of buses, Temsa, will be a strong candidate.

Hyundai Rotem

The recently published legislation forces all new produced rolling stock running on Turkish rail network to have TSI certificate. This may cause elimination of one of the stongest players which lead recent urban rail car tenders of Turkish cities (Izmir, Istanbul, Antalya), Hyundai Rotem. On the other hand, Hyundai Rotem has a joint venture company with TCDD, Hyundai Eurotem and has produced hundreds of rail cars running on Turkish rail network, Izban and Marmaray cars until now. Hyundai Group has partnership with Kibar Group in Turkey.

CRRC

CRRC, the new company after merge of CNR and CSR has the same problem with Hyundai Rotem, the TSI certification. Chinese company had already built a partnership with MNG Holding for the production of 300+ metro cars for Ankara. They are also producing metro cars of Izmir. CRRC recently sold train sets to Macedonia, the first order in European market, which means they have TSI certification experience, but not in high speed trains.

Cover Photo: Onur Uysal ©