Russia: The relevant Memorandum for five years was signed between TMH and the Federal Passenger Company (FPC, part of Russian Railways, RZD) within the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum last week.
According to the agreement, the manufacturer and RZD’s subsidiary are going to cooperate in terms of evaluation of the market needs for this kind of rolling stock, and consequent developing and launching the production of such passenger coaches.
FPC has a long-term contract, signed in 2019, with TMH’s plant in Tver for the supply of up to 3,700 passenger coaches, which are scheduled to be delivered by 2025. Currently, its designed speed is 160 km/h. Besides, at the same forum in St. Petersburg, TMH and FPC have also announced that the refurbished coaches for the Aurora trains are planned to enter service by the end of the year.
Today, TMH’s top priority is the work on the enlarged single-deck passenger coach of loading gauge T. At the beginning of the year, Oleg Belozerov, RDZ’s General Director, reported to Russian President Vladimir Putin that the new type of coach is expected to be ready by the end of 2024. Also, in January, Aleksandr Loshmanov, Deputy General Director for Passenger Transport Development at TMH, informed the participants of the discussion within the Russia Expo that TMH and RZD have a sustainable development program on the passenger coaches of loading gauge T, and increasing a design speed from 160 to 200 km/h is one of the program’s directions.
The coaches with a design speed of 200 km/h were produced at the Tver plant in the 1970s and in the early 2000s. As pointed by the manufacturer, the appropriate locomotives are needed to haul coaches at a higher speed. The EP20 electric locomotive produced from 2011 to 2021 with the application of Alstom technologies was designed for such operation, but the vehicle has been phased out. At the end of 2023, Mikhail Rozhkov, Deputy General Director for Technical Development at TMH, announced the start of a new project on the development of the passenger 2EP21 electric locomotive. Dmitry Pegov, Deputy General Director and Head of the Traction Directorate at RZD, in his article for the Locomotive magazine told that the certification of the bi-mode 2EP21/22 electric locomotive is scheduled for the end of 2026.
