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CAF Urbos (Edinburgh Trams)
CAF's seven-section low-floor trams for Edinburgh's tramway: 27 built in Spain in 2009-2011, in service since 2014. Each is 141 ft (43 m) long on four bogies, three of them powered, with six doors a side and room for 250.
Scale
CAF Urbos (Edinburgh Trams) · indicative drawing GB Trains · gbtrains.uk/stock/edinburgh-urbos/ · CC BY 4.0
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Liveries 1
Edinburgh TramsWhite with a madder band over the windows and a thin madder line under them, a silver windscreen surround and dark roof cap; from photographs of 269 (2016) and 253 (2020)Shown aboveFormer liveries 2
Harlequin mock-up (Lothian Buses red/gold harlequin)Ran as Edinburgh TramsFormer2009 to 2010Not drawn yet
Original batch livery: mainly white, madder stripe above windows carrying Edinburgh Trams logos; then white/madder without logosFormer2011-2014 to Dec 2013Not drawn yet
- Type
- Tram, seven sections, low floor
- Builder
- CAF (Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles), Spain
- Built
- 2009–2011
- In service
- since 2014
- Lines
- Edinburgh Trams
- Formation
- Seven sections, 141 ft (42.86 m) between the body ends, double-ended: a cab section at each end and a short section in each half on bogies, three suspended sections between them; four bogies, three of them powered
- Trains in fleet
- 27
- Top speed
- 43 mph (70 km/h)
- Power
- 750 V DC overhead; twelve 80 kW motors, four on each motor bogie (CAF) · how it works
- Bogies
- CAF Urbos bogies, behind the skirts but for the bottoms of the wheels: three motor bogies (four longitudinal motors each) and one trailer bogie (Edinburgh)
- Train length
- 141 ft (42.856 m)
- Car height
- 11 ft 2 in (3.40 m)
- Car width
- 8 ft 8 in (2.65 m)
- Profile
- tram
- Seats per train
- 78
- Total capacity
- 78 seats, 170 standing and 2 wheelchair spaces, 250 in all (City of Edinburgh Council, 2025)
- Status
- In service: all 27, on the line from Edinburgh Airport to Newhaven. The council expects them to need a major refurbishment within five years of 2025, and up to five more trams if the network is extended to the south-east (Technical Note 3, 2025).
Sources
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Show the 15 sources from Wikimedia Commons, Department for Transport, British Trams Online and 3 more
- Edinburgh Tram (project pages: General Description, Basic details, Performance, Equipment) CAF (Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles), 2012 (Internet Archive copies of 25 February and 6 April 2012)seven articulated carbodies on four bogies (three motor, one trailer); 141 ft (42,856 mm) long, 8 ft 8 in (2,650 mm) wide, 11 ft 2 in (3,400 mm) high; floor 1 ft 2 in (350 mm); six doors a side, 4 ft 3 in / 2 ft 7 in (1,300/800 mm) clear; 750 V DC; 12 x 80 kW; 70 km/h (43 mph); 27 trams, the first delivered in April 2010
- Trams to Granton, Bioquarter and beyond: Technical Note No. 3, Power Supply and Rolling Stock City of Edinburgh Council, 11 March 2025CAF Urbos 3; built 2009-2011, in service since 2014; 27 trams of seven units, about 141 ft (43 m); 78 seats, 170 standing, 2 wheelchair spaces; low floor about 1 ft 2 in (350 mm); 70 km/h (43 mph); 750 V DC; the refurbishment expected and the extra trams the extension may need
- CAF Urbos 3 (Edinburgh) Wikipediafleet numbers, works, motor maker, axle arrangement (cross-check only)
- 'Trams between Airport and Ingliston 3.JPG' (photograph: a tram side-on from a long way off, in sun; CC BY-SA 4.0) Wikimedia Commons (Smiley.toerist), 7 August 2015the drawing: sections, bellows, doors, windows, skirt panels, the front's profile and the bands' heights, measured side-on (layout only)
- 'Edinburgh trams 2015 05.JPG' (photograph: 257's cab section near side-on, low, on Princes Street; CC BY-SA 4.0) Wikimedia Commons (Smiley.toerist), 31 July 2015the drawing: the wheels' bottoms showing under the skirt, the wheelbase and the skirt's height
- 'CAF Urbos 3 Tram.jpg' (photograph: tram 269 at Edinburgh Park, near side-on from the cab end; CC BY-SA 4.0) Wikimedia Commons (Samson Ng), 4 June 2016the drawing: the livery close up, colours, window and door-leaf corners
- 'Edinburgh airport, CAF trams in 2020 (3).jpg' (photograph: tram 253's cab end at three-quarters; CC BY-SA 4.0) Wikimedia Commons (Kevin.B), 6 February 2020the drawing: the front, no coupler showing; the madder sweep and the corner lens
- 'General Railway Pictures 2018 60.jpg' (photograph: a tram near side-on with its pantograph raised; CC BY-SA 2.0) Wikimedia Commons (The Basingstoker), 10 January 2018the drawing: the pantograph's section and which way it folds
- 'DSCN2001 Trams at Gogar Tram Depot.jpg' (photograph: trams in the depot yard, one pantograph raised and one folded; CC BY-SA 3.0) Wikimedia Commons (AlasdairW), 29 September 2018the drawing: the pantograph folded (single arm)
- 'DSCN1981 Tram bogie changing at Gogar Tram Depot.jpg' (photograph: a tram's cab section lifted off its bogie; CC BY-SA 3.0) Wikimedia Commons (AlasdairW), 29 September 2018the drawing: the cab section's skirt panels
- 'Edinburghtrams depot (14498625834).jpg' (photograph: a cab section near side-on at Gogar depot; CC BY 2.0) Wikimedia Commons (Calum Cape), 9 June 2014the drawing: the livery in 2014
- The Highway Code: road works, level crossings and tramways (rules 288 to 307), rule 307 Department for Transport (GOV.UK), accessed 10 October 2026, p. rule 307the "In operation" drawing's contact wire: 19 ft 0 in (5.8 m), the normal height of tramway wires over a carriageway
- In Pictures: Tram breakdown in Edinburgh City Centre (news item with photographs) British Trams Online, 20 December 2022a rescue: two trams joined by a tow bar low between the closed fronts, side on (set BC11, 20 October 2026; layout only)
- Britishtramsonline.co.uk British Trams Online, read 13 October 2026the livery's name, who ran it and its years (no colours taken)
- The Highway Code: road works, level crossings and tramways (rules 288 to 307), rule 307 Department for Transport (GOV.UK), accessed 10 October 2026, p. rule 307the contact wire in the In operation drawing: 19 ft 0 in (5.8 m) above rail, the normal height of tramway wires over a carriageway
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unverified
- Fleet numbers 251-277 (Wikipedia; the photographs show 253, 257 and 269)
- Built at CAF's Beasain works (Wikipedia; CAF names no works); the first tram delivered in April 2010 (CAF) or on 26 April 2010 (Wikipedia)
- Motors: CAF gives 12 x 80 kW; Wikipedia gives 12 ABB 60 kW motors with Kiepe traction equipment, citing makers' reference lists
- Capacity: the council's 78 seats, 170 standing and 2 wheelchair spaces (2025) are shown; CAF gave 80 seats and 252 standing (332 places) in 2012, at a fuller standing allowance
- Which intermediate bogie is the trailer: CAF says one is, not which; Wikipedia's axle arrangement (Bo'+0'+2'+0'+Bo'+0'+Bo') puts it under section 3. Not known either: whether the pantograph's section is the trailer's
- Height: CAF's 11 ft 2 in (3,400 mm) vehicle height is taken to be over the roof equipment and the folded pantograph; the body's roof measures about 10 ft 6 in (3.2 m) on the side-on photograph
- The drawing: section lengths, door, window and panel positions and every height are read off one side-on photograph scaled by CAF's length (about 50 mm along, 25 mm up); the bogies' places are the skirt panels' centres; the pantograph's folded length (7 ft 3 in (2.2 m)) and its exact place on its section are estimates
- The wheels: their bottoms show under the cab bogie's skirt on Princes Street (2015), and are drawn alike under all four bogies; the wheelbase (6 ft 1 in (1,850 mm)) is measured there to about 100 mm; the diameter (2 ft 0 in (600 mm)) isn't published for Edinburgh and the photographs show too little to measure it (West Midlands' Urbos 3: 1 ft 11 in (590 mm) new, Wikipedia)
- The pantograph's place: photographs of it raised (2015, 2018) put its hinge about 3 ft 3 in to 4 ft 7 in (1.0-1.4 m) from its section's outer end, the knee reaching out over the bellows; folded, the drawing keeps it on its own section (the roof check stops a pantograph that reaches past its car), so its hinge is drawn about 3 ft 11 in (1.2 m) nearer the middle than the photographs show
- Drawing (WMF25): the madder sweep's descent between the cab side window's pillar and the nose isn't seen side on in any photograph (the Ingliston side-on is too coarse at 22 mm a pixel to show a 35 mm line; 257 on Princes Street is close and ahead of the nose there, lesson 20; 269 and 253 are three-quarter): it is the earlier reading smoothed (within 10 mm of it), level at the pillar (257 reads it level to about 5 ft 1 in (1.55 m) from the nose, within 25 mm of the curve) and at 2 ft 4 in to 2 ft 5 in (709-745 mm) at the nose (269, 253)
- Drawing (WMF25): the camera housing and its slot are read off 257 (2015) along the cab side, rectified on the cab side window's pillar, the door's window and the next window to about 30 mm; the amber side lamp's place is read off 269's three-quarter view (about 150 mm); the hatch's off 257, its heights about 50 mm (the lower body curves in)
- Drawing (WMF25B, WMF25D): the silver band's swoop over the cab side window and the madder band's front end under it are traced off 257 on Princes Street (2015), the nearest to side on that shows them: heights on the madder band's own scale (3.43 mm a pixel, about 25 mm), lengths by a 1-D perspective fitted on the madder band reaching the window (3 ft 7 in (1.09 m), the Ingliston side-on) and the camera housing's two ends (about 50 mm behind 4 ft 7 in (1.4 m), 100 mm nearer the front, where the side turns away); the band ends at the cab's panel joint (6 ft 11 in (2.11 m)), behind which 269 (2016) and the Ingliston side-on show the bodyside white; the windscreen's edge along the outline above the band (257's dark rim, the Ingliston blue-grey strip) about 80 mm wide
- Drawing (WMF25): the head and tail lamps sit on the black panel across the front, facing forward; neither the Ingliston side-on nor 257 shows them side on, so they are not drawn (only the amber corner lens, as before)
- The years of the former liveries come from Wikipedia's class article and the other sources listed, and haven't been checked against a second source.
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