CPTM Series 2500
The CPTM Series 2500 is a class of electric multiple units built by CRRC Qingdao Sifang between 2017 and 2019 to operate on CPTM Line 13-Jade.
History
The series of EMUs was built by a consortium composed of Chinese CRRC Qingdao Sifang and Spanish company based in Brazil Temoinsa. The consortium won a public bidding for the production of eight trains that would be operated on CPTM Line 13, which connects the Guarulhos Airport to the rest of the metropolitan network.The bidding was made by CPTM in March 2016, but the winner was announced only in the final days of the year, after a long analysis by the European Investment Bank, which made available €85 million for the project. Spanish CAF and Korean Rotem filed an injunction against the result days after the announcement, but it was later rejected in August 2017, allowing the signature of the contract.
The proposals presented for this contract were:
- 1st Place – Consórcio Temoinsa–Sifang, with a cost of R$316,720,807.00
- 2nd Place – Hyundai Rotem, with a cost of R$326,144,738.00
- 3rd Place – Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles do Brasil Ltda, with a cost of R$396,659,450.00
The main differential from the rest of the rolling stock is that the compositions are equipped with luggage racks for passengers carrying baggage and the presence of individual door opening buttons, which, at first, are not used by the company.
According to the contract, the delivers should be concluded by August 2019. However, due to delays, only the first train was delivered in September, with other two delivered in the beginning of November.
Controversies
The great difference between the proposals presented in the bidding is due to the fact that Rotem and CAF proposed to build the trains in Brazil, while Sifang proposed the construction in China and nationalization by a CKD assembly by Temoinsa Brazilian branch. Due to this proposal, the bidding result was questioned by the Spanish and Korean companies, who opened factories in Brazil to attend this requirements for assembly. The questions were not successful, besides the delay of the bidding process.Temoinsa, along with CAF, is one of the companies involved in the São Paulo public transit bidding scandal, with the Public Prosecutor's Office requesting their dissolution, later unsuccessful, in 2015. In 2017, the Public Prosecutor's Office requested the arrests of the companies' representatives for their involvement in the case.