Adif Alta Velocidad awarded in September 2021 to Thales España GRP a contract of 93.83 million euros, VAT included, to renew the railway signaling and protection installations of the Madrid-Sevilla high-speed line. The project contemplated implementing the European ERTMS system, renewing the interlockings and updating other safety and telecommunications elements. The total planned term was 52 months.
The award once again puts the focus on the modernization of the line after the Urda railway accident, in Toledo, which occurred on October 28, 2026. The contracting file makes it possible to reconstruct how the action was awarded, why Adif accepted an offer significantly lower than the initial budget and what functions the project was supposed to cover.
An offer 28.45% below the budget
The tender was published with a budget of 131.14 million euros, VAT included, equivalent to 108.38 million before taxes. The contract was divided into four months to draft and approve the construction project and another 48 months to carry out the works, until completing the 52 months planned.
In the economic evaluation, Thales's bid was placed in presumed abnormality for presenting a 28.45% reduction. The company justified the price by the technical solutions it had already developed, its previous experience on the line and the possibility of reusing existing technology and interfaces, as well as by economies of scale in the manufacture of equipment.
The official Adif report on the justification of the bid concluded that Thales had sufficiently explained the reduction and could continue in the procedure. The document attributes the economic advantage, among other factors, to technical developments already carried out and to the compatibility of the new equipment with the existing systems.
The award was agreed on September 14, 2021 and the contract was formalized on October 13 of that year for 77.55 million euros before VAT and 93.83 million with taxes. The formalization notice states that three bids were received: those of Siemens Rail Automation, Thales España GRP and CAF Signalling. The published reason was that Thales's proposal was the most economically advantageous.
Having been formalized on October 13, 2021, the 52 months of execution led to February 2026, but, according to El País, the ERTMS still needed testing and homologation.
It should be emphasized that the company that received the contract changed corporate group after the award. Thales completed on May 31, 2024 the sale of its ground transportation systems business to the Japanese multinational Hitachi Rail. The operation included railway signaling and train control activities, so it places Hitachi in the business context of the modernization of the Madrid-Seville line.
What had to change on the line
The project was not limited to installing a new train protection system. It included the renewal of signaling installations, the replacement of the existing interlockings with electronic ones, the updating of obstacle detectors, and the improvement of fixed telecommunications. It also contemplated actions on the La Sagra-Toledo branch.
The objective was to deploy ERTMS, the European railway traffic management system, on the line and in its associated installations. This technology makes it possible to monitor the circulation and speed of trains and is part of European railway interoperability.
The tender documents established, however, that the line had to maintain its commercial operation during the works. For this reason, the existing LZB protection system had to continue operating before, during, and after the commissioning of the new system. Adif's own report notes that this coexistence between technologies was part of the conditions that Thales took into account to justify its bid. The continued presence of LZB during the transition did not in itself constitute a breach: it was provided for in the contractual design.