A consortium of Spanish private companies selected to bid for the construction and operation of a high-speed train contract in Brazil has lost its first battle after Brazilian authorities denied them more time to present their project ideas.
Selecting what companies would belong to the consortium dragged on for more than 6 months because of a rivalry between Talgo and Caf, who wanted to represent themselves separately while the Ministry of Public Works was pressuring them to work together. Finally, the consortium was finalized on May 29 without Caf and with just a short time to make a bid to the Brazilians for the train project.
Unlike what happened with the Meca AVE line, disagreements between companies figured more prominently than what work the team was going to do. It seems that Caf is finally going to be involved, but at this point the Spain team might be out of the running for one of the most profitable jobs in the Americas.
