The partnership agreement has been signed between the French manufacturer and the national operator Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ) during a state visit of Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to France.
The agreement provides for manufacture of the new mainline freight electric locomotive KZ6A with asynchronous traction motors. Its production is planned to be launched at EKZ, Electric locomotives manufacturing plant located in Kazakhstan’s capital city, Astana. The new vehicles are to replace the Soviet-era VL80 electric locomotives. The technical details are not yet unveiled.
It is worth noting that the launch of the KZ6A locomotive was announced back in 2010 when Alstom began entering the Kazakh railway market, laying the foundation for the EKZ facility. It was then stated that the KZ6A would be a six-axle locomotive for container transportation. However, a 2012 long-term contract between Alstom and KTZ concerned two other models of electric locomotives, both based on the Prima platform. 250 KZ8A freight locomotives and 119 KZ4AT passenger locomotives were to be delivered under this contract. Meanwhile, since 2021 Alstom has been actively applying the Traxx locomotive platform, which passed to the French producer as a result of the acquisition of Bombardier Transportation.
Alongside with the partnership agreement, it has been also confirmed that Alstom will continue delivering locomotives to KTZ. The parties have signed a new contract for the supply of 117 freight electric locomotives by 2028. The deal is backed by a soft loan from the French bank Société Générale. Alstom has also announced a €50 mln investment into construction of four service centres for maintenance of electric locomotives. The investment is expected to ensure a total of 700 new jobs. As stated by the manufacturer earlier on, it is planned to increase the localisation level for the rolling stock assembly in Kazakhstan to 39% (it was 31% in 2022).
