Amurrio Ferrocarril
Amurrio Ferrocarril y Equipos is a Spanish manufacturer of railway turnouts and crossings, based in Amurrio in the Basque Country and supplying networks on several continents.
The company’s predecessor, Mariano de Corral, was founded in Bilbao in 1880 and relocated to Amurrio in 1924, where it later took the name Amurrio Ferrocarril y Equipos in 1995. It employs 172 people (2024 registry data).
The plant in Amurrio, in the province of Álava, covers 50,000 square metres, of which 30,000 are under roof. The site combines an engineering and design office, mechanical and chemical laboratories, an in-house steel foundry and assembly facilities.
Products and services
Amurrio Ferrocarril (AMUFER) designs, manufactures, installs and maintains switches and turnouts, crossings and other track apparatus for high-speed, conventional, metro, tramway and heavy-haul applications. The foundry casts crossings and other components in carbon steel, manganese steel and other alloys.
Production capacity exceeds 300 turnouts and 3,500 crossings per year. Developments include the patented GEA turnout geometry for high-speed lines, the CRBM point locking device for switches, and a movable-point crossing design used on tramway layouts.
Market position
Amurrio Ferrocarrilis an accredited supplier to the Spanish railway companies, including infrastructure manager ADIF, active across the track and infrastructure sector and exporting to more than 65 countries. Its AV4 high-speed turnouts, designed for 350 km/h on the through route, equip the Haramain line between Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.
In Uruguay, the company supplied 124 turnouts for the Ferrocarril Central project, a 273 km rebuilt freight line between Paso de los Toros and the port of Montevideo.
Current activity
The company marked a century of operations in Amurrio in October 2024 with an open house for employees, families and neighbours. It reported annual revenue of EUR 38 million at the time, and its role in the Ferrocarril Central project included the supply of 124 conventional turnouts, 20 rerailing devices and five expansion joints, alongside deliveries for the Atocha Cercanías station works in Madrid and for the Boston tramway.
More recently, Amurrio Ferrocarrilis has completed the Hazitek-backed research projects SIFON and DES2bis, developing more sustainable foundry processes and decarbonising its turnout-hardening technology, according to the company.
