Lithuanian Railways Buys Siemens Freight Locomotives

Lithuanian Railways have ordered another ten Class ER20 CF freight locomotives from Siemens .

The order, which includes testing, maintenance and parts, is worth over €35m and is set to be completed, two locomotives a month between May and September 2010.

The order follows on from a 2005 deal when Lithuanian Railways ordered 34 six-axle diesel-electric locomotives to the value of €123m and also took out an option for another ten units.

Twenty of those units have already been built in Siemens’ locomotive plant in Munich, Germany and have already been delivered to Lithuanian Railways.

The ER20 CF belongs to the Siemens Eurorunner series and will run primarily on the transit corridor between Russia and the Baltic ports of Klaipeda and Kaliningrad.

The ER20 CF is one of the heaviest locomotives in Europe and, in double-heading mode, can pull trains weighing as much as 6,000t. Until now, freight locomotives operating in Lithuania could only haul 4,000t at most.

A big selling point of the ER20 CF was the fuel consumption of the locomotive, which is 40% more efficient than the legacy locomotives from other vendors.

Photo & Source: Siemens