Siemens and Russian Railways recently finalized a €500 million ($681.5 million) deal granting the German company a 40-year railway car maintenance contract for 54 Desiro RUS trains purchased from 2009-10. The agreement is another step in Russia’s railway infrastructure upgrades, the most notable of which was the December 2010 opening of a high-speed rail link between Helsinki and St. Petersburg.
The contract, signed at the Expo 1520 event on September 7 in Shcherbinka and effective as of 2013, foresees Siemens and Sinara partnering on the maintenance of the trains as a part of the two rail companies’ existing Train Technologies joint venture in a service agreement for Russian Railways.
This follows the June 2011 deal between Sinara and Siemens that will produce 1,200 rail cars at the Train Technologies factory outside of Yekaterinburg valued at €2 billion ($2.7 billion).
Following the signing ceremony on September 7 with Russian Railways head Vladimir Yakunin and Sinara President Dmitriy Pumpyanskiy, Siemens’ CEO Peter Löscher stated that as part of the maintenance agreement, his company would invest some €200 million ($2.72 million) in Russia for modern buildings, personnel training and machine tools. The repair depots will be built in Moscow and Adler, near Sochi, and it is expected that 80 people will be employed at each site during peak usage. The Adler site is scheduled to be operational in autumn 2013 just before the opening ceremonies of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, while Russian Railways plans on their continued use through the 2018 World Cup.
“Siemens is the most successful non-Russian supplier of railway technology in (Russia). By localizing production activities we are strengthening this market position and securing our close ties with the Russian railway industry,” Löscher said.
Hans-Jörg Grundmann, CEO of the Siemens Mobility Division, added, “The trains will be delivered in the period from 2015 to 2020 and deployed above all in Russia’s rapidly growing metropolitan regions,” further stating that such growing metro areas “are a huge growth market” for the transportation industry.
On the production side of the contract, the Desiro RUS trains, as part of Siemens’ green products portfolio, will consume 30 percent less energy than current models. With a top speed of 160 kph, they will be specifically designed for the region’s harsh climate. Siemens has had a separate contract since 2006 for eight Valero RUS Saspan trains that run the Russia-Moscow high-speed rail line, which has a 98 percent fleet availability record despite Russia’s extreme climate.
Photo: Vokabre, flickr.com: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vokabre/5001122110/
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