| CAF Newport | |
| Location Map: | Wales Newport |
| Built: | 2017/2018 |
| Operated: | 2018 - |
| Location: | Llanwern, Newport, Wales |
| Industry: | Manufacturing |
| Products: | Rolling stock |
| Employees: | 200 (2020) |
| Buildings: | 4 |
| Volume: | 15000m2 (buildings) 46000m2 (whole site) |
| Address: | 1 Monks Ditch Drive Celtic Business Park |
| Owner: | CAF |
CAF Newport is a rolling stock factory located at Celtic Business Park, Llanwern, Newport, Wales. The site was announced as a train-building factory in 2016 and was producing rolling stock by 2018. It is owned and operated by CAF.
Since the 1990s, CAF have supplied trains for the UK rail network from its factories in Spain. Products have included Class 3000 and Class 4000 DMUs for NI Railways, s for Heathrow Express, s for Arriva Trains Northern, s and s for Arriva Rail North,[1] Class 196s for West Midlands Trains, Class 197s for Transport for Wales, Class 397 and Mark 5s for TransPennine Express and Mark 5s for the Caledonian Sleeper.[2] CAF also supplied Urbos 3 trams for Edinburgh and the West Midlands Metro.[3]
When searching for a possible site to construct trains in the UK, CAF looked at over 100 different locations before settling on one on a part of the defunct Llanwern steelworks in South Wales.[4] The site is located alongside sidings which follow the South Wales Main Line between and, and the site has three main buildings: a three-road assembly plant, a five-road test shed, and a stores building.[5] The west end of the site has a traverser, which enables easy access to lines without the need for excessive shunting, and a water test facility.
The project cost £30 million and the footprint of the buildings cover an area of 15000m2,[6] with capacity to extend onsite as CAF own 46000m2.[7] Expansion would have been be necessary to build the near 200m (700feet) trains for HS2, if CAF had been successful in its bid. Initially, the site had just 12 employees, but that stood at 200 by the start of 2020. The company expects that the order book will necessitate expanding to 300 staff to fulfil those orders.
Construction of the factory by Bowmer + Kirkland commenced in 2017, with work completed in July 2018.[8] [9] [10] It was officially opened by Prince Charles on 21 February 2020.[11]
CAF had stated that should they be awarded the contract to build trains for HS2, then they would be assembled in South Wales on its Oaris platform.[12] However in December 2021, the contract was awarded to a competing manufacturer.
The bodyshells, bogies and engines are manufactured off site, and bodyshells specifically are produced at CAF's plants in Beasain, Zaragosa and Irun, but assembly and other manufacturing is undertaken at Newport.[13]
Production at the site was ceased in March 2020 after COVID-19 social distancing restrictions came into effect. Bodyshell deliveries from Spain had ceased two weeks before the factory's closure, and although it was possible to continue building without the bodyshell deliveries, it was felt that it was unable to keep the workers at a safe distance from each other.[14]
CAF also have other business strands operating out of the Newport site; all UK rolling stock works are concentrated on the site including design, system engineering and support to projects such as the Mark 5 passenger coaches for the Caledonian Sleeper and TransPennine Express which were built outside of the UK.