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CRRC shunters approved for operation in Hungary

30 October 2024
Reading time ~ 2 min
The Class 461 shunting locomotives from CRRC
The Class 461 shunting locomotives from CRRC. Source: Kallus György/Vilaggazdasag
Savenkova Ekaterina, Editorial Contributor to International Projects of ROLLINGSTOCK Agency
Reading time ~ 2 min
Stolchnev Alexey, Russian Projects Editor, ROLLINGSTOCK Agency

Hungary: The freight operator Rail Cargo Hungaria, RCH, part of OBB, Austria, has received approval to operate two Class 461 hybrid locomotives on the public network. The vehicles have been built at CRRC’s plant in Zhuzhou.

The traction capacity of the the Class 461’s hybrid drive is 850 kW in catenary mode and 350 kW when using the LTO batteries. During testing, the locomotives have travelled a total of 40,000 km. Another locomotive, the Bison mainline electric locomotive, also ordered by RCH, is still being tested on the national network.

RCH has leased the locomotives from the producer for a term of four years. As Imre Kovács, the company’s CEO, told Vilaggazdasag, the operator is considering a possible order for a further 22 mainline and shunting locomotives from CRRC, four of which could be built in Hungary. This spring, the Chinese manufacturer announced the possibility of starting rolling stock assembly in the country.

This is not the first time that CRRC has supplied locomotives to Europe. Earlier, there were supplies of shunting locomotives to Germany and Austria and mainline electric locomotives to Macedonia and Serbia. In 2020, the Chinese company acquired a locomotive manufacturer in Germany, Vossloh. Today, its subsidiary has a full backlog of orders and is launching new vehicles on the market. In the context of China’s expansion in this and other industrial sectors, the year 2023 witnessed stricter state control over the purchase and sale of EU assets.

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