“Serbian Railways” Director General Dragoljub Simonović and executive vice president for marketing and sales of the Swiss company “Stadler” Peter Jenelten signed today on March, 4 in Belgrade Contract on procurement of 21 new EMUs in value of EUR 99 million.
Serbian railways procure new EMUs from the EBRD loan funds within Railway Rehabilitation Project III.

– Regardless of serious economic situation, we realized signing of this Contract which represents continuation of Serbian railways modernization. Serbian lines should be adjusted for the speed of this train of 160 km/h, so that the new sets could achieve full quality. “Stadler” offered technical solution which will change the Serbian railways image starting from September next year, said “Serbian Railways” Director General Dragoljub Simonović during the Contract signing.

According to Mr. Simonović, realization of the loan for procurement of 21 new EMUs is running late for over three years, due to which railways suffered EUR 5 million damage in the period of the former management. New management has realized tender procedure in only two months, which shows different climate than the one which was up until now. If we had realized the procurement three years ago, we would have two new trains by now, said Mr. Simonović.

It is one of the credit lines of Serbian railways which former management did not realized in the envisaged deadlines, which forced Serbian railways to pay EBRD penalties and provisions in the amount of several million Euros. Although “Serbian Railways” have signed in May 2009 the Loan Contract in the amount of EUR 100 million for procurement of new EMUs with EBRD, and the funds became operative in March 2010, Serbian Railways have not realized tender procedure for full three years.

The first new train- in September next year

Tender procedure is conducted in a two phase process. In the first phase four technical offers were received and after their analysis, the following were qualified for the second phase: “Simens” from Austria, “Alstom” from Germany and “Stadler Bussnang AG” from Switzerland. The offer in the second phase was made only by Swiss party.

Executive vice president for marketing and sales of the Swiss company Peter Jenelten said that the most popular train is going to be delivered to Serbian railways, because 890 of these trains already operate in 13 European countries. He welcomed the trust and the opportunity for “Stadler to cooperate with “Serbian Railways” and he announced the presentation of the new train on Innotrans fair in September next year, which is the largest fair of railway technology, which is held biannually.

On the occasion of Contract signing, apart from Serbian railways management and media representatives, there were also present “Serbian Railways” Board President Zoran Anđelković, Minister Assistant for Railway and Intermodal Transport Dejan Lasica, Swiss Consul Beat Schmid and sales manager for Central and Eastern Europe of Swiss company Rudolf Kvetan.

All trains arrive in 2,5 years

According to Contract, the first new EMU should arrive in Serbia 82 weeks after its signing i.e. on September, 29, 2014. The last EMU should arrive in our country on August, 31, 2015. That actually means that all of the 21 new EMUs will arrive in Serbia in 2,5 years since the Contract signing.

After the first new train is delivered in the late September next year, the second set will arrive 2,5 months later. That time is necessary to complete testing of the first set on Serbian lines and to obtain the permit of Directorate for Railways for its operation in traffic. After that, new trains will be delivered each 15 days in order to have them all within the arranged deadline of 2,5 years.

New trains will be mostly used for regional railway traffic across Serbia and in a great measure will satisfy needs of Serbian Railways for this type of transport by offering better, more comfortable and more efficient service.

Apart from 21 new EMUs, the Contract include also delivery of the equipment, spare parts, special tools, supplies and technical documentation and manufacturer commit himself to train and educate personnel, which will operate on new sets and work on their maintenance.

New EMUs which will operate on Serbian lines are four-part sets capable for the speeds of 160 km/h. The train capacity is 464 passengers, 234 sitting places and 230 standing places.

Modern equipment and speed 160 km/h

In the addition, new sets will have up-to-date equipment: GPS system, Radio Dispatcher Unit, passenger information system, auto stop device, air-conditioning, universal toilette and wheelchair entrance, as well as two places for accommodation of wheelchairs.

“Serbian Railways” agreed with Swiss company procurement of trains type “FLIRT” third generation. Swiss company has manufactured by now several hundreds of EMUs of this type, which operate in Germany, Italy, Hungary, Norway, Finland, Russia, Poland, Switzerland, Algeria, Czech and Estonia. Apart from EMUs, this Swiss company manufactures also locomotives, metro trains, trams and similar.

The train manufacturer is Swiss company “Stadler Bussnang AG”, which is a member of the Group Stadlerrail. This Group, apart from Swiss company, consists of companies from Germany, Poland, Hungary, Algeria and other countries.