Spanish train manufacturer CAF (www.caf.es) has signed a 200 million euro contract with Serco Caledonian Sleepers (www.sleeper.scot) for the construction of 75 rolling-stock coaches, along with related spares and technical support. Under this contract, CAF will manufacture five kinds of coach for four trains with 16 coaches.

The remaining 11 coaches will be provided to the Caledonian Sleeper franchise, which operates the Highland and Lowland services.

For this project, Scottish Ministers will provide an investment of £60 million, while the additional funding will be delivered by Caledonian Sleepers Rail Leasing, a subsidiary of Lombard North Central. In May 2014, Transport Scotland selected Serco Group to handle the new 15-year rail franchise for the Caledonian Sleeper service.

The company will take charge of the service in April and is expected to introduce the new coaches in April 2018.
This £800 million franchise will be operated separately from the main ScotRail franchise; the service will offer connection between London and Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Fort William, Glasgow, Inverness and many other Scottish towns and cities.

Recently, CAF received an order from the Utrecht Regional Authority in the Netherlands to provide trams for the new Uithof Line, which connects the Central Station with Utrecht University Campus. Under this contract, CAF is responsible for the delivery of 27 trams for this 440 million euro light-rail project, which will see the construction of an 8km-long line with nine stations.