Alstom’s share on the stock market has missed an opportunity to jump, and the French manufacturer to fill his order book. The National Society of Belgian Railways (SNCB) announced on Wednesday that it has chosen the Spanish manufacturer CAF, to the detriment of the French Alstom and the German Siemens, for a mega contract for renewing its trains fleet by 2034.
The SNCB board of directors has appointed CAF as a “preferential bid” for this project which could relate to the delivery of up to 600 trains, said the Belgian Minister of Mobility, Jean-Luc Crucke.
A first contract at 1.7 billion, and a possible triple
A first order relates to 180 oars, or 54,000 seats, for an amount estimated at 1.7 billion euros, and it can then be increased, said SNCB spokesperson Tom Guillaume. The Minister spoke of a contract of several billion. The decision is part of a vast modernization of the aging rolling stock of the SNCB. It is a question of building new so -called “AM30” trains, the first being supposed to be delivered in 2029.
“I take note of this autonomous decision – in accordance with European rules – and I am now waiting for the SNCB to translate it into a concrete, ambitious and structuring industrial project for Belgian rail,” said Jean -Luc Crucke, quoted in a press release. “This market is a unique opportunity to take a CAP,” he added, recalling that the Belgian government’s objective was “to increase the modal share of the rail by 30 % by 2032”. The choice of CAF is actually confirmation.
“Without national preference” for employment
The SNCB had already expressed its preference for the Spanish candidate in 2022 in 2022 in early 2025. But the Belgian Council of State had suspended this first decision after an extreme emergency request from Alstom Belgium, one of the unfortunate candidates. On Wednesday, the SNCB assured that the decision of its board of directors took into account the judgment of the Council of State.
At the beginning of July in the House, Jean-Luc Crucke had been under fire of the deputies, pointing to the fact that employment on a Belgian site in Alstom, in Bruges, would be jeopardized by the loss of this big contract. But “the very essence of a European market is to select on the basis of overall performance, without national preference,” said the minister on Wednesday.
In front of the deputies he had not hidden that CAF’s proposal was slightly better than that of Alstom in terms of energy consumption, one of the important parameters of the command. “The command also includes battery trains intended to ultimately replace the current diesel self -propelled,” said the SNCB.
The Belgian operator also said that “the offers submitted by the three bidders each mentioned the use of local providers”.