Renfe retreat from Paris casts doubt on Talgo's €350m Le Train order

Spanish rolling-stock manufacturer Talgo faces the potential collapse of a €350 million contract to supply up to ten Avril high-speed trainsets to French private operator Le Train, after state-backed Renfe shelved its planned expansion into the French market, removing the only live pathway to certifying the fleet north of the Pyrenees.

The Basque manufacturer's 2023 preliminary agreement with Le Train, which aims to launch high-speed services in western France, was explicitly contingent on securing French homologation for the Avril platform.

That process had been expected to proceed on the back of Renfe's Lyon to Paris rollout. Renfe has now allowed its framework agreement for paths between the two cities to lapse, citing "accumulated difficulties" in certifying the trains and the absence of a workable launch timetable.

According to El Economista, the sole Avril unit undergoing homologation testing in France is set to be recalled to Spain and redeployed domestically. Of the 30 Avril trains ordered by Renfe, 27 are already in operation on Spanish lines. Without an active unit in France, industry insiders concede there is no clear short-term route to completing approval, a process understood to be around 70% complete. By comparison, Paris took about two years to certify Trenitalia's Frecciarossa trains.

Renfe has publicly accused French infrastructure manager SNCF Réseau of frustrating the process to limit its ability to compete with the state-backed incumbent, and is now seeking regional passenger operating contracts, including the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté TER package, while maintaining its Barcelona to Lyon and Madrid to Marseille corridors.

Talgo said it would honour the Le Train agreement and pursue the necessary approvals, though the setback casts fresh doubt over the pace of genuine liberalisation in France's high-speed market.