Top Russian Locomotive Manufacturer Reveals Promising Projects in Rail Industry

While the Russian engineering industry is famous for its armored vehicles, aircraft and rocket carriers, less is known about Russian-made locomotives and advanced rail equipment. In an interview with Sputnik, a representative of Transmashholding corporation, Artem Ledenev, discussed new trends and promising projects in this field. The management of Transmashholding has invested over 68 billion rubles (about 1.2 billion dollars) into the development and modernization of its plants over the last few years, enabling the company to implement a number of large-scale projects and become one of the top ten manufacturers of railway equipment worldwide, Artem Ledenev, head of the company's department for external relations, told Sputnik. "For example, at the Novocherkassk Electric Locomotive Plant, we managed to develop new-generation electric locomotives: the passenger model EP20 and freight model 2ES5. Our plants in Kolomna and Penza have produced the D500, D300 and D200 advanced domestic diesel engines. The Tver Railway Car Building Plant (TVZ) has manufactured a series of bi-level rail cars and acquired a new competence — the production of electric trains with asynchronous traction motors," Ledenev stated. According to the spokesman, Transmashholding is always interested in learning new things and applying modern technology. This is why cooperating with foreign partners is one of the most important areas of the company's work. "Our strategic partner is French concern Alstom, which owns 33% of Transmashholding's shares. We jointly established the LLC TRTRans engineering center, which specializes in the development of new models of railway equipment," Ledenev noted. The manager also added that the company runs a diesel locomotive plant jointly with the US energy manufacturing giant General Electric, a joint venture that gave the Russian holding an opportunity to expand its presence on the global locomotive market and increase its competitiveness. However, as the production of railway equipment depends on existing regulations which vary from country to country, this field is quite specific. "You can't just buy a train you like and start operating it in your country. So you should be very cautious when comparing trains, locomotives and cars produced in different nations with each other because what has proved to be good in one country may not be suitable for use in another," the company's spokesman stated. In Lebedev's opinion, the Russian company can be proud of its EP20 electric locomotive, which is capable of developing a speed of up to 200 km/h, as well as passenger double-decker cars that are very "spacious" and "comfortable." Both electric locomotives and cars can be operated in the widest range of temperatures typical for Russia — from minus fifty to plus forty degrees Celsius. "Such features, as a rule, are not common for any products of foreign manufacturers," Ledenev said, adding that Russian production is in demand in several European and Middle Eastern countries, and potentially in Latin America. "We have already received funding for our projects in Serbia and Hungary; we also very much hope that the Russian government will support our initiatives in Iran. I am confident that thanks to strategic cooperation with the world's leading companies, Transmashholding will become a major player in the international transport engineering market in the next three years," Ledenev concluded.