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Augurably with one of the worst reputations among Buenos Aires’s variegated Subte fleet, these former Madrid Metro 6000 Series trains were acquired by SBASE in summer 2013 as part of a large sale of surplus rolling stock and equipment from Metro Madrid, wich, due to the relentless network expansion, and a serious financial crunch due to the post-2008 recession fallout, wich hit Spain particularily hard, had been saddled with hefty debts, and was thus essentially eager to get as much cash as quickly as possible.
These 6000 Series trains had been manufactured by CAF between 1998 and 1999 for a total of 44 two-car sets (later extended to three cars by the addition of an intermediate trailer between 2002 and 2003) and were intended to primarily serve Line 9 and it’s south-eastern extension to Arganda Del Rey, rather suburban in style, with long intra-station distances and high operating speeds. Line 9 however has always been a line with a relatively low ridership (compared to the other major trunk lines of the Madrid Metro network), and, with the patronage on the “TFM” extension to Arganda del Rey way lower than initially expeced, the 6000 Series fleet was deemed considerably oversized compared to the actual operational needs of the line. Furthemore, some persisting reliability issues, and the availability of more reliable, both older and newer wide-profile rolling stock, displaced from other lines, prompted Metro Madrid to put more than half of the 6000 Series fleet up for sale – 86 cars total, of wich 72 “M-cars” and 14 intermediate trailers.
These 6000 Series sets were purchased by SBASE, along with the technical package for Metro Madrid’s patented rigid catenary system, wich it had independently developed, and was in widespread use on it’s network. The sale netted Metro Madrid a total of 32,6 million euros.
SBASE had already previous purchased used rolling stock from Metro Madrid (specifically a total of 32 cars of Madrid’s 1st-batch 5000 Series sets) for use on it’s Line B , and also planned to use it’s newly-acquired 6000 Series fleet on the same line, whose services were still run at the time by the ageing 60-year old “Mitsubishi” trains – former TRTA 300, 400 and 500 Series trains built in the 1950s for TRTA’s Marunouchi Line. SBASE’s intentions were to replace the “Mitsubishi” trains, and to introduce a number of fetaures that had been sorely missing from Line B, namely air-conditioning, and most importantly, doing both things at once for essentially a bargain.
SBASE had also purchased the rigid catenary technology from Madrid, as it intended for the 6000 Series fleet to become the mainstay on Line B – as such, it was deemed more convenient to adapt the line to catenary operations, rather than convert the trains (has had been done with the ex-Madrid CAF 5000 Series trains). This was also intended to standardize Buenos Aires’ Subte network on power supply, as Line B was the only line in the system not powered by overhead wires.
These were more or less SBASE’s intentions, and the reality would be far less rosy and smooth. Already from the get-go things had taken an odd turn, as most of the 6000 Series fleet SBASE had paid for, in advance and in cash, was retained in revenue service by Metro Madrid for nearly a year after the sale, only being withdrawn and shipped to Argentina in January 2015.
After this considerable delay, the 6000 Series trains – redesigned as the “CAF 6000 Series” (in continuity with the other ex-Madrid purchase – the CAF 5000s) arrived in Buenos Aires, where they were retrofitted with some adaptations to enable them to run on Line B, namely the fitting of running boards on the sides, as Line B had been built for 3,2m-wide rolling stock, and the CAF 6000s were only 2,8m wide), regauging of the wheelsets (the Madrid Metro runs on the peculiar 1445mm gauge, while the Buenos Aires Subte runs on the standard 1435mm gauge) and the replacement of the in-car next station display ROM with one loaded with Line B’s stops. Another modification was cosmetic – the blue and white Madrid Metro livery of the CAF 6000s was replaced by modern-looking yellow one with a cacophony of orange and darker yellow lines – applied as a vinyl wrap.
After the installation of the rigid overhead catenary was done, the first CAF 6000 Series was taken out for testing, and immediately, some problems became quite evident, namely in terms of substation capacity. The CAF 6000s were power-hungry trains, and their air-conditioning system commanded even larger amounts of energy, wich the substations, almost all dating to the opening of the line in the 1930s, could not handle. As such, for the first tests, strictly only one CAF 6000 Series train was allowed on the line at any given time, and had to run with it’s air-conditining system switched off, due to the danger of overloading the substations.
This led to the unforseen expense of essentially rebuilding and adapting Line B’s complete power system, as there was fundamentally no alternative (the alternative would be running only one CAF 6000 set, without air-conditioning…), and to the need of slightly “de-power” the trains, among other things reducing their maximium speed from 110 Km/h to just 65 Km/h.
These expenses were stacked on top of the various issues the CAF 6000s had already been suffering since their very recent introduction – reliability problems, especially with the sophisticated electronics, as well as a generally mounting criticism of the whole transaction – enelsubte.com journalists, along with the Andén 1 group of Madrid Metro enthusiasts, harshly criticized both the sale and purchase, as the 6000 Series was completely inadapt to SBASE’s necessities, being intended for suburban-like stretches with long intra-station distances and low passenger densities, whereas SBASE’s Line B, the busiest in the whole Buenos Aires subte, was a very densely used line, with remarkably short intra-station distances (averaging circa 690m, with 17 stations over 11,4 Km of route), thus needed a completely different style of stock. The nature of the 6000 Series’ formation as a two- or three-car unit with considerably large cab at both ends also results in a lot of “wasted space”. These and other issues, like the fact that passengers had to get used to manually open their doors by the handle provided (something that had been commonplace in Madrid since the introduction of the 2000 Series in the 1980s, but was completely new in Buenos Aires, where all trains had automatic doors) and a case of an air-conditioning unit leaking, or rather raining, it’s fluids on the passengers inside the train, led to the CAF 6000 Series being labled as the “Worst purchase in the history of the Subte”.
Icing on the cake came with the total cost tally, as it was quickly and easily estimated that by summing up all the expenses SBASE and the city of Buenos Aires had incurred over the whole CAF 6000 Series affair, the total spent would have been enough to buy brand-new rolling stock for Line B (ideally a derivative Chinese CITC-CNR trains that were purchased at the same time and had already done a good impression of themselves on Line A), rather than augurably 15-year old, unsuitable second-hand trains.
However, the CAF 6000s were what SBASE got, and so they had to make do. A further year elapsed before substations were replaced or renewed, and gradually more and more CAF 6000 Series sets were allowed on revenue service on the line starting from mid-2016, sharing tracks with the ex-Marunouchi Line “Mitsubishi” and the fellow former-Madrid CAF 5000 Series. However, while the dismantling of the third rail had been planned, this was not carried out, as in the face of mounting costs (and equally mounting scrutiny) SBASE opted not to proceed immediately with the conversion of the CAF 5000 Series back to catenary, and scrapped wholesale a similar pantograph-retrofit that was planned for the “Mitsubishi” trains. As such, Line B has been left with an unique case – it’s the only subway line (and the only railway line) in the world electrified for the whole of it’s lenght with two different systems at the same time – rigid overhead catenary being in use by the CAF 6000s, and the third rail being in use by the “Mitsubishi” and CAF 5000 Series trains.
However, the six CAF 5000 Series sets would not last for much longer as in 2018 after Madrid Metro discovered copious amounts of asbestos within the similar rolling stock (the 2nd-batch 5200 Series) it had still in use – this lead to SBASE undertaking a similar probe of it’s rolling stock, with unfortunately similar results, leading to the abrupt and immediate retirement of the six CAF 6000 Series sets from Line B (a retirement certainly not mourned by many, due to the CAF 5000s’ notorious reputation as faulty trains). A CAF 6000 Series set was also involved in the asbestos controversy, as during the probe, the cancerogenous material was found inside it’s main circuit braker box, wich was later found to have been salvaged from a withdrawn CAF 5000 set, and used as a spare part on the newer trains, explaining the asbestos’ provenance.
Nothing remarkable, apart from a constant strings of faults has happened around the CAF 6000 Series – as of today, the rolling stock situation on Line B, the busiest in Buenos Aires’ Subte network, is rather bleak – the CAF 6000’s situation is getting worse by the day, due to a shortage of spare pieces (two trains have been withdrawn to act as spare donors, along with 18 coaches – a number of trailers and a few cab cars – that were bought by SBASE but never converted to run on Line B), maintainance issues and precocious ageing, only five out of fourteen sets are operable currently. The rolling stock shortage is so severe that withdrawal of the “Mitsubishi” trains had to be canceled abruptly (after a number of cars had already been scrapped), with the now 70-year old trains having to be retained in service indefinitely, and while not necessarily “decrepit”, are still in need of a replacement. Indeed, said replacement has been announced multiple times since 2018, and while the bidding process finally started in 2023, progress has unfortunately been rather slow, with the order for the new rolling stock being reduced to just 22 trains, only enough to replace the “Mitsubishi” trains, while the CAF 6000s are to be retained in service until further notice…
Trivia:
SBASE’s rationale for purchasing the CAF 6000 Series was that they would’ve needed only minor modifications to run on Line B, were readily and immediately available and would’ve been much cheaper than buying brand-new rolling stock. Not only SBASE was proven wrong on all three points, it was spectacularily so – major modifications, both forseen and unforseen, had to be made to both the trains and the line’s infrastructure, wich resulted in the entry into revenue service of the new trains being delayed by a number of years (on top of the already year-long delay due to Metro Madrid’s retention of the already-sold units), both of wich resulting, as explained in the main text, in a total pricetag that would’ve easily equalled the purchase of custom-built, brand-new cars.
Bonus video – courtesy of renfeut450.
An unremarkable six-car 6000 Series formation departing Valdebernardo station on Line 9 and heading for Puerta de Arganda, around June 2014… Except these two are trains 09 and 39, wich had been purchased by SBASE nearly one year prior, and had been paid in cash, in advance. These two wouldn’t be withdrawn for another six months, and would only be shipped to Argentina (along with the rest of the purchase) in January 2015.
