CAF Urbos

The CAF Urbos is a family of trams, streetcars, and light rail vehicles built by CAF. The Spanish manufacturer CAF previously made locomotives, passenger cars, regional, and underground trains. In 1993, CAF started building trams for Metrovalencia, with the delivery of 16 trams until 1999. This was a variant of a Siemens design and some components were delivered by Siemens, including bogies and traction motors. This design was also sold to Lisbon Trams in 1995; CAF then decided to design and build the Urbos in-house.

There are three generations of the CAF Urbos, namely the Urbos 1, Urbos 2, and Urbos 3. The first generation was ordered by the Bilbao tram operator, who received eight trams between 2002 and 2004. The second generation was sold to other operators in Spain, and the third generation is sold in Spain, elsewhere in Europe, the United States, Australia and in the UK. Manufacturing locations include Beasain, Zaragoza and Linares, Spain; Elmira, New York, USA; Hortolandia, Brazil; Newport, UK; Huehuetoca, Mexico; and Bagnères-de-Bigorre, France.

CAF Urbos 1
This series was only sold to Euskotren Tranbia to operate tram services in Bilbao. The original Bilbao tram system was shut down in 1964 and the second generation opened in December 2002 with extensions in 2004.
 * Bilbao tram: 8 bidirectional trams, numbered 401–408 and locally designated the Euskotren 400 series. 70% low-floor trams with 3 bogies on.

CAF Urbos 3


The CAF Urbos 3 is the successor of the Urbos 2; all new sales are of Urbos 3. The standard variants, the Urbos 100 and Urbos 70, have either a 100% or 70% low floor design, respectively, and a maximum speed of 80 km/h. The tram type is offered in metre gauge and standard gauge and allows for a tram width of 2300 ,. Trams can be assembled from 3, 5, 7 or (only for the Urbos 100) 9 modules, with the length ranging between 23 and 56 m.

CAF has developed an option to build 'Greentech Freedrive' lithium-ion supercapacitors and batteries into the Urbos 3, allowing brief operation without an external electrical supply. This ACR system (Acumulador de Carga Rápida) allowed the tramway operator in Seville to remove the overhead wires in key locations during Holy Week 2011. It has also been used in Luxembourg, Granada, Zaragoza and the West Midlands.

Design flaws
In December 2017, the Besançon Tramway in Besançon, France, discovered cracks in their Urbos 3s vehicles around the bogie box area of the bodies, which in December 2020 CAF paid for remedial work to be performed with each unit affected requiring one month downtime for the work to be completed.

On 11 June 2021, the West Midlands Metro (operating between Birmingham and Wolverhampton, England) were forced to suspend their services due to similar cracks being discovered in the bogie box areas of their Urbos 3s vehicles, with ongoing investigations continuing to identify any other issues relating to the cracks and to find options for remedial works to be performed.

Following on from these instances, in November 2021 the New South Wales transport minister Rob Stokes announced that the Sydney L1 Dulwich Hill Line would be decommissioned for up to 18 months, due to serious design flaws in all 12 of the CAF Urbos 3s tram sets that were running on the line. Stokes stated that the flaws (in the bogie boxes) were likely to be far broader in scope than those identified in Sydney due to the thousands of the same tram type operated around the world.

Similar issues relating to cracks in the bogie box area were discovered in the Urbos 3 vehicles supplied to the Belgrade Tramway Network.

The discovery of further cracks in the West Midlands trams led to service being suspended again from 12 November 2021 to December 2021.

Following vehicle inspections, services in the West Midlands were again suspended on 20 March 2022 until further notice due to cracks described by the operator as 'bodywork cracks'. Midland Metro was working directly with the manufacturer to assess the safety and operational impact.

Urbos AXL
Vehicles in the Urbos AXL series have longer car-body sections and pivoting bogies. With a maximum speed of 90 km/h, it is designed for high-capacity, mass rapid transit systems. This type of tram is currently in use only in two Northern European countries:
 * Tallinn, Estonia, (20 trams)
 * Stockholm, Sweden (22)

Urbos TT
The Urbos TT series is built with tram-train technology, connecting existing heavy rail infrastructure directly to urban tramway systems.
 * Cádiz, Spain (7 vehicles)

Urbos LRV
A three-section articulated car supported by three bogies, the LRV variant of Urbos is designed for the North American market and is customizable.
 * Houston, Texas, USA (39 vehicles)

LRTA 13000 class (Metro edition)
The LRTA 13000 class is a high-floor light rail vehicle variant of the Urbos. 120 units were ordered for the LRT Line 1 medium-capacity rail system in Metro Manila, Philippines. It was designed by CAF along with Mitsubishi Corporation and built at CAF's facilities in Corella, Spain, and Huehuetoca, Mexico. The trains were progressively delivered from 2021 onwards, entering service by 20 July 2023. Once all the trainsets have entered service, they will eventually replace the aging LRTA 1000 class LRVs which are nearing 40 years old.