The Tarragona tramway is moving forward with Stadler as the only candidate.

The Basque company CAF has declined to submit a financial offer, leaving the Swiss firm with a factory in the Valencian Community alone. The tender, for 73 million euros and led by FGC, includes the purchase and maintenance of seven battery-powered trams.

A step forward has been taken in the TramCamp project, the future tram network that will connect different municipalities in Tarragona and its metropolitan area, home to nearly half a million people.

This infrastructure, the first phase of which is expected to be completed in 2027 on the old railway line that linked the center of Salou and Vila-seca , is one of the projects the Generalitat (Catalan Government) has been planning for years. There is already a virtual winner for one of the main contracts associated with the project: the acquisition and maintenance of rolling stock.

The FGC has not yet formally awarded the contract, but there is only one candidate in the running, the Swiss group Stadler , since the other candidate, the Basque CAF , ultimately did not submit a financial offer.

Since 2015, Stadler has owned the Albuixec railway equipment factory (Valencia) , which was originally opened by the defunct Catalan group Macosa. Among the plant's most recent orders is the joint purchase of 504 trams for various German and Austrian cities for a total of €4 billion. This is the largest order received to date by this factory, which also completes trams for the Valencian operator FGV.

If the FGC contract is confirmed, it would not be the first time the Swiss firm has worked for the operator chaired by Carles Ruiz , former mayor of Viladecans (Baix Llobregat) . Stadler is currently manufacturing four trains for the line between Lleida, Manresa and Vallès Occidental, which is currently operated by Renfe and will soon be taken over by an FGC subsidiary.

In 2023, the Swiss company delivered two diesel locomotives to the Catalan government operator to transport cars from the Seat plant in Martorell (Baix Llobregat) and potash from the ICL mines in Súria (Bages) to the Port of Barcelona. Stadler also built the final batch of 15 trains for the Vallès line, which began operating in 2023.

One of the unique features of the tender is the technical characteristics of the future TramCamp vehicles. They will be equipped with batteries, as some sections through urban centers will not have overhead lines, as several mayors had requested.

Alstom, a French manufacturer with a plant in Santa Perpètua de Mogoda (Vallès Occidental), declined to enter the tender, due to the technology, among other reasons. When batteries are not used, its focus is on having a power outlet on the tracks, as is the case with the Barcelona Tram extension between Glòries and Verdaguer.

Previously, FGC launched a first tender to purchase trams for Tarragona and maintain them for 15 years, but the bid was unsuccessful, prompting the operator to raise the starting price from €58.18 million to €73.26 million, including VAT. Stadler's bid amounts to €45.8 million for the trams, plus maintenance costs.