TMH and Alstom to Create Russia’s 1st dual-voltage Electric Locomotive

CJSC Transmashholding, OJSC Russian Railways and Alstom have entered into an agreement for the development of the first Russian dual-voltage freight locomotive called “2ES20” with asynchronous traction drive.

RZD President Vladimir Yakunin, TMH President Andrey Bokarev and Alstom Transport President Henri Poupart-Lafarge affixed their signatures to the agreement. The agreement was signed during the VIII International Railway Business Forum “1520 Strategic Partnership” in Sochi.

The new locomotive will be able to run on both 3kVand 25 kV DC and AC, respectively. Implementation of such machines will eliminate loco swap at stations where the current is changed over, which will save costs for park maintenance and loco swaps.

The agreement sets up the foundation of a joint team work to prepare and validate the technical design of the 2ES20 locomotive. It is expected that by September 2013 development of design documentation for the electric locomotive will be finalised, while the loco’s first prototype is expected to be produced and ready for testing in March 2014. The delivery of 2ES20 electric locomotives to RZD will commence in December 2014.

“A dual-voltage mainline electric locomotive is a modern solution, brand new for the domestic industry”, A. Bokarev said. “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 performance”.

“This is the third locomotive project we are implementing in Russia with our partner Transmashholding”, Henri Poupart-Lafarge noted. “It offers excellent prospects to our fruitful cooperation. With each joint project we gradually expand scope of production in Russia within our localization strategy. I may proudly proclaim that Alstom together with Transmashholding are considered as trusted strategic partners of the Russian Railways to support RZD ambitious plan to modernize its fleet of more than 20,000 locomotives by 2030. This new locomotive will enhance performance of freight operations of our customers in Russia as well as in the 1520 market. I am sure this project will be as successive as the previous ones.

” The design and engineering of the new electric locomotive and its key components, including traction equipment, will be performed by joint engineering centre TRTrans.

The production of the new locomotives will be arranged for at Novocherkassk Electric Locomotive Plant (part of Transmashholding group). Key components production including traction equipment will be localized in the companies located in the Russian Federation.

Locomotives developed by Alstom and TMH are among the most powerful in the world, meeting local requirements for traction rolling stock 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.

Source : TMH Press Centre