The first out of 12 bought diesel trains from Russia will be delivered to Serbian Railways until the end of September, said Director General of “Serbian Railways” Milovan Markovic in Moscow after the meeting with representatives of the Russian company “Metrovagonmas”, and after visiting their manufacturing facilities, in which the train sets for our needs are made.
According to his words, that will be the first purchase of new passenger trains after three decades.
The first train will be tested in Serbia and it should be ready for use until the end of this year. The remaining 11 trains will be delivered successively by the end of 2012- said Markovic.
This agreement was made during the visit of highest delegation of “Serbian Railways” made to Russian company “Metrovagonmas” on 16 July in Moscow. The delegation members of Serbian railways were Director General Milovan Markovic, President of the General Meeting of Shareholders Zoran Andjelkovic, Director of Operations Directorate Dragan Grujic and Assistant Director General for Supplies Jesa Ercic.
Serbian railways delegation spoke with the management members of “Transmas” holding company and “Metrovagonmas” company, which is a part of “Transmas” holding. After the dialoge, Serbian railway delegation visited manufacturing facilities in “Metrovagonmas” and attended new diesel trains presentation, which are being produced by Russian company for our railways.
Nice, comfortable and functional train
Impressions of the whole Serbian delegation, including media representatives, after the new diesel train presentation were more than positive. Beside its nice structure, which will be real refreshment and novelty on Serbian railways, the new diesel train showed all its comfort, functionality and quality.
The new diesel passenger trains will be used to improve inland, especially regional and local traffic on non-electrified railway lines.
-The first train is technically ready for delivery and it fulfils all requirements we asked from manufacturer. It is technically very modern and has the latest equipment, air-conditioning system and system for communication with passengers, said Markovic to journalists after the conversation with management representatives of “Metrovagonmas” .
Train procurement financed from the Russian loan
-“Serbian Railways” have started an initiative and discussed with Russian partner the possibility to use one part of 800 million dollars Russian loan, which should be used for development of railway infrastructure, for procurement of more trains for local and regional traffic. The amount of 100 million dollars was discussed and this initiative is fully supported by the Serbian Government. Serbia needs 40 trains of this kind, so the procurement of additional train sets financed from the Russian loan would solve the local traffic issue on diesel railway lines in Serbia- said Markovic.
According to his words, the tender for the procurement of electric motor trains for main railway lines, financed from the EBRD loan in the amount of €100 million, as well as the procurement of the most modern, €65 million worth multi-system locomotives is comming in its final phase.
The President of the General Meeting of Shareholders Zoran Andjelkovic explained, that there is a great interest of the region in the new trains, and he added, that 12 train sets will be deployed starting from Nis towards Zajecar, in Kursumlija and Dimitrovrgad, and in cities in Vojvodina, as well as in Krusevac, Kraljevo, Sabac, Loznica and in other non-electrified areas.
With this kind of trains the regional railway traffic in Serbia could also be much better and efficient- said Andjelkovic.
Great interest of the region in the new trains
“Serbian Railways” and the Russian company “Metrovagonmas” signed last year the Contract on purchase of 12 new diesel motor trains financed from the CHF43 million loan of the International Railway Bank “Eurofima”.
The price of one new diesel train is almost CHF 3, 4 million, bearing in mind that the spare parts, tools, maintenance equipment, consumables and CHF 2, 5 million worth documentation will also be delivered with trains.
The Russian company “Metrovagonmas”, as part of “Transmas” holding company, was chosen as the most convenient during the International Public Tender, which was followed by “Eurofima” itself. Four great European companies: CAF from Spain, “ZOS Vrutky” from Slovakia, Russian “Metrovagonmas” and Croatian “Gredelj” participated in tender- said Assistant Director General for Supplies Jesa Ercic.
Director of Operations Directorate of “Serbian Railways” Dragan Grujic explained, that all trains have Mercedes motors, Voith transmission, Knorr braking system and other components made by the best manufacturers.
The most modern equipment
The new trains will be manufactured according to all national and international standards, as it was demanded in tender documentation. This trains will be binary, with the capacity of 120 sitting palces. They are equipped with the most modern air-conditioning, ventilation and heating system, as well as with the latest drive, control and diagnostic system. The main components are being manufatured by well known manufacturers from the West Europe. The maximum speed limit of the trains is 120km/h. All of them will have the most modern audio-visual equipment for passenger information, internal video surveillance, internal and external monitors and sound system-said Grujic.
Bearing in mind all technical characteristics, this diesel motor trains should be in function for the next 35 years.
