Russia: The rolling stock plant that is part of the Sinara–Transport Machines, STM, has embarked on an ambitious project to increase the output of its production facilities.
According to the Russian daily newspaper Kommersant, the company is already purchasing the necessary machinery and equipment. The total investment is RUB 44 bln ($410 mln), of which RUB 33 bln ($307 mln) will come from the state, including loans from the Industrial Development Fund. This summer, First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov announced that the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade would contribute to the expansion of the production facilities, and in August, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said that the national Transport Mobility project would also support the establishment of high-speed train production.
The project to expand Ural Locomotives’ production facilities was developed several years ago. Two new buildings with a total area of 60,000 m2 will be built to ensure the production of almost 300 EMU cars – 144 for high-speed trains and 150 for Finist trains — by 2028. As the company told Kommersant, the project synchronisation of process flows as part of the project will synchronise the construction of high-speed and regional trains. Ural Locomotives is the only Russian rolling stock producer that has mastered the serial welding of aluminium passenger cars.
Welding robot at Ural Locomotives. Source: Ural Locomotives
The investment will enable the construction of a test station for asynchronous drives for high-speed trains. “This will be a unique laboratory not only in our country, but also in the CIS countries”, Ural Locomotives reports. The Russian Electric Motors, a subsidiary of Transneft, is now developing the TAD650 electric motor for the high-speed train.
According to STM, the project will create 450 high-tech jobs in the short term and about 1,500 professionals to be involved later, representing a 35% increase in Ural Locomotives 4,200-strong work force. The plant is already cooperating both with universities, such as Ural State University of Railway Transport, St. Petersburg State Transport University, Russian University of Transport, etc., and vocational training institutions. According to Ural Locomotives, it plans to implement in-house training and advanced training for personnel from related fields.
Mockup of the Russian high-speed train displayed in Moscow. Source: Russian Railways
The contract with Russian Railways calls for the first prototype of a high-speed train with a design speed of 360 km/h to be built in 2027. According to Kommersant, about 16% of the design documentation has already been developed and Ural Locomotives has agreed technical specifications for the design of components with most of 70 suppliers from Russia. By the end of 2024, a prototype of the bogie frame is to be produced, and in 2025, production of carbodies will begin.
During the last Transport Week, an annual event organised by the Russian Transport Ministry, Dmitry Pumpyansky, President of the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of the Sverdlovsk Region, explained that more than 30,000 parts, components and units are needed to build a high-speed train. Of these, 1,400 are critical, including 1,200 thousand that have never been produced in Russia before. “It is estimated that, depending on the period or technology, a maximum of 15% to 20% of the components and units will be imported, while the remaining 80–85% will be our own, domestic, produced in the Russian Federation”, the Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.
To date, Russian Railways and the State Transport Leasing Company have ordered 43 eight-car trains, of 344 cars, with potential demand for all high-speed line projects in Russia exceeding 290 trains, or 2,300 cars.
