Alstom and its Russian partner TMH to create Russia’s first dual-voltage electric freight locomotive for the Russian Railways
Alstom, its Russian partner Transmashholding (TMH) and the Russian Railways (RZD) have entered into an agreement for the development of the first Russian dual-voltage freight locomotive called “2ES20”.
The dual-voltage, double-section mainline electric locomotive with asynchronous traction drive, will be able to run on both 3kV and 25 kV current. This will allow eliminating loco swap at station where the current is changed over, which will save time and resources.
The agreement was signed today in presence of Alstom’s CEO Patrick Kron by RZD President Vladimir Yakunin, TMH President Andrey Bokarev and Alstom Transport President Henri Poupart-Lafarge during the VIII International Railway Business Forum “1520[1] Strategic Partnership” in Sochi, Russia.
The agreement sets up the foundation of a team work to prepare and validate the technical design of the 2ES20 locomotive, expected to be finalised by September, while the loco’s first prototype is expected to be ready for testing in March 2014. The delivery of 2ES20 electric locomotives to RZD is scheduled for December 2014.
“A dual-voltage mainline electric locomotive is a modern solution, brand new for Russian industry of freight operations”, said A. Bokarev. “Its application is able to considerably reduce the time for goods traffic in critical sections of the rail network. We expect the introduction of dual-voltage electric locomotives in the network to significantly increase the efficiency of the railway transport”.
“This is the third locomotive project we are implementing in Russia with our partner TMH thanks to our fruitful cooperation. This new and high performing locomotive will enhance freight operations in the country as well as in the 1520 market. This project is part of Russian Railways plan to modernize 20,000 locomotives by 2030 and I am particularly proud to know that Alstom and TMH are considered as trusted strategic partners to support its ambitious project” said Henri Poupart-Lafarge.
The design and engineering of the new electric locomotive and its key components, including traction equipment, will be performed by TRTrans, the engineering company jointly managed by Alstom and TMH in Moscow and Novocherkassk.
The production of the new locomotives will be done at Novocherkassk Electric Locomotive Plant (NEVZ, part of Transmashholding). There, in April 2013, Alstom and TMH inaugurated their new joint production site of RailComp, dedicated to asynchronous traction drives and other key components. The best-in-class traction and other key components for this new locomotive will be produced in RailComp.
Locomotives developed by Alstom and TMH are among the most powerful in the world, meeting local requirements of Russia and other 1520 countries. TMH and Alstom together are currently executing the contracts on the supply of 400 locomotives to Russia and 295 locomotives to Kazakhstan.
