It's not the first time RENFE has done it, look at the S130 units. A good portion of those used to be traditional hauled stock, built around 1999, but then in 2007 they built power cars.Elipsos sleepers were Talgo 6 coaches, from memory, when they ceased around a decade ago.
Were any Talgo 6 (200 km/h) rebuilt as Talgo 7 (250 km/h) or were all Talgo 7 new?
Avril S-107 = S-106 power cars + rebuilt Talgo 7 coaches. Rather odd, indeed.
It may be only refurbished body shells, S-107 is the first 330 km/h-approved variable gauge design so new or rebuilt wheelsets.
Anyone know more about the numbers? From the Trenhotel Talgo 7 sets this needs 13 sets x 12 = 156 coaches.
The Trenhotel sets were longer - from memory around 20 coaches. About 6 sets were needed in service up to 2020 when the last Trenhotel ceased so the numbers (6+spares)x20 roughly match. Other Trenhotel had ceased by around 2015. Either way, these have all been out of use and deteriorating for several years.
The economics of mid-life coaches + new power cars might look better than all-new initially but over the whole life it is probably much worse. Remember why e-Voyager never happened.
Absolutely. As the current mini-cascade will see S-106 release S-130/730 (the Franken-train) to replace hauled Talgo 7 coaches, presumably those coaches will be on offer for yet another rebuild.It's not the first time RENFE has done it, look at the S130 units. A good portion of those used to be traditional hauled stock, built around 1999, but then in 2007 they built power cars.
They're not known for being customer-oriented in general. And that's an understatement.Seems so odd that RENFE is going against the flow with night trains seeing a big boom elsewhere.
Seems so odd that RENFE is going against the flow with night trains seeing a big boom elsewhere.
There is nowhere significant that justifies a 9-hour overnight service from Madrid as the the HSL network nears completion and day trains to major cities take 3 hours or so.Typical RENFE. Spain is almost perfect for a night train network, what with very long distances that can only realistically be covered by train or plane. Even the fastest AVE journeys from Malaga to Barcelona take 5.5 hours, with most journeys over 6 hours. It shouldn't be rocket science to have a night train network centred around having departures from Madrid around 10pm, with subsequent arrivals in major destinations (Malaga, Barcelona, Valencia, etc) at around 6-7am, with the night trains starting at the opposite end of the country earlier in the day.
Indeed. The Spanish government's vision for the high-speed network is to connect all major cities to Madrid within 3 (or is it 4?) hours, and all major cities to Barcelona in 6 hours. With those sorts of journey durations it's difficult to justify a sleeper.There is nowhere significant that justifies a 9-hour overnight service from Madrid as the the HSL network nears completion and day trains to major cities take 3 hours or so.
Barcelona-Galicia is the last internal route which could potentially support one. Barcelona-Andalucia might just about with Caley Sleeper levels of subsidy.
Last Madrid-> and <-Barcelona are after 2100 which is suprisingly good in a country where some routes are 4 a day or fewer and cross-country typically 1-2 per day.... last Spanish high speed departures are around 7-8pm (similar to last departures from London to Glasgow/Scotland).
Last Madrid-> and <-Barcelona are after 2100 which is suprisingly good in a country where some routes are 4 a day or fewer and cross-country typically 1-2 per day.
There is nowhere significant that justifies a 9-hour overnight service from Madrid as the the HSL network nears completion and day trains to major cities take 3 hours or so.
Barcelona-Galicia is the last internal route which could potentially support one. Barcelona-Andalucia might just about with Caley Sleeper levels of subsidy.