Russia: The national passenger rail services operator purchased almost 2,700 coaches in 2017-2021. The company plans to spend other 51.9 bln RUR ($720 mln USD) on the new coaches procurement in the next 3 years.
Over the specified period, the fleet of the Federal Passenger Company (FPС, part of Russian Railways) received 1,615 non-compartment coaches, 977 sleeping coaches, 43 dining cars and vehicles of other types. In addition, over the past 5 years FPC has invested 44.2 bln RUR ($670 mln USD) to carry out a corrective overhaul to extend the service life of 2,000 coaches and a major overhaul of 494 cars.
The FPC annual report for 2021 has a discrepancy between the volumes of purchased and registered coaches in its fleet. So, according to the document, only 293 coaches were registered: 95 sleeping coaches, 95 non-compartment coaches and 3 dining cars. At the same time, the operator reports that it has purchased 436 passenger coaches, including 24 double-deck vehicles of the 2018 model range, 346 “Coach-2019” single-deck and 66 “Coach-2020” double-deck.
ROLLINGSTOCK Agency has conducted an analysis and it showed that such discrepancies in reports began in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic started to have a significant impact on all processes. Thus, that year, 648 cars were registered whereas 533 had been purchased. Regarding 2021, the FPC explained to ROLLINGSTOCK the difference by the fact that some of the vehicles purchased in 2021 were registered at the beginning of this year. The operator’s press service also clarified the coach registration procedure: it takes up to 10-11 days to send a finished coach from the factory to a customer, other 40 days to register with Federal Railway Transport Agency, up to 10 days to get an infrastructure permission at the Technical Audit Center of RZD. So the whole process takes 2 months in general.
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Analysis of FPC’s annual reports also showed that its fleet has been declining over all 5 years. If the company’s fleet at the end of 2017 was 19,400 coaches, then at the end of 2021 is included 15,800 coaches. Over 5 years, 6,400 vehicles were decommissioned, the average age of the fleet decreased from 19 to 17 years. It is also worth noting that 525 double-deck coaches were purchased in 2017-2021.
According to the 2021 annual report, FPC plans to allocate $720 mln USD for the purchase of new coaches, and 17.1 bln RUR ($235 mln USD) for the modernization of the fleet in 2022-2024. As the RZD-Partner magazine writes with reference to FPC Deputy General Director Mikhail Poyarkov, implementation of such an investment program will allow to decrease the share of outdated coaches to 10% of the FPC fleet or 1,600 units. FPC reported that it plan to purchase 389 coaches for 28.5 bln RUR ($395 mln USD) in 2022: 270 single-deck and 119 double-deck ones. In particular, among them there should be 134 sleeping coaches, each of which is equipped with a special compartment for families with small children.
Today, FPC is purchasing coaches of a new generation, single-deck “Coach-2019” and double-deck “Coach-2020”, under a long-term contract with the Tver Carriage Works (TVZ, part of Transmashholding), which implies delivery of up to 3,700 coaches in 2019-2025 (the firm part is 2,600). Both models are designed on the principle of two-car couplers and offer a significant increase in passenger comfort. The “Coach-2023” project is also under work. It is supposed to be executed in new dimension with an increase in the length of the cabin and the width of the coach. Also, during 2020-2021, Transmashholding demonstrated different options for the interior of this coach (perpendicular, longitudinal and diagonal execution of couchettes): it is assumed that the final option will be selected based on passengers survey.
