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Lithuanian railways eye purchases of electric locomotives
Published: Thu, 2015-02-19 08:01-
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Locomotive purchases planned for 2019
Lithuania’s state-run railway company AB Lietuvos Geležinkeliai is aiming to acquire new electric locomotives to further expand and modernise its rolling stock fleet. The firm plans to carry out consultations with manufacturers from Germany, France, Poland and the Czech Republic before a contract is awarded.
Under the plan, the acquisitions are to be performed in 2019, reports local news site Baltic-course.com. The consulted producers include Germany’s Siemens and the Czech Republic’s Skoda.
Albertas Bajorinas, the deputy director at the company’s rolling stock department, said that AB Lietuvos Geležinkeliai is currently “looking for a standard produc that meets our demands and [which] could be used … after minor adjustments.”
“This would allow us [to] save money not only in purchasing [the rolling stoick], but also in operating and maintaining electric locomotives.”
The amount of the planned acquisitions was not disclosed.
"Prices of electric locomotives depend on their configuration, the need for additional certification, amount, supply terms, and other details," Bajorinas said, adding that the price of the offered rolling stock should not be higher "than the market price."
The latest plans by AB Lietuvos Geležinkeliai are related to its strategy of electrifying the Lithuanian rail network. Last year, the company launched a project to upgrade the rail link between Naujoji Vilnia to the country’s border with Belarus. The project is the first stage of the investment to electrify the rail link between Kena and Klaipeda, both in Lituhuania.
Based in Vilnius, Lithuania, the company says it carried some 4.577 million passengers in 2014, which represented a 5.5% decrease compared with a year earlier. Last year, AB Lietuvos Geležinkeliai carried some 49 million tonnes of cargo, which was an increase of more than 2% compared with 2013.
Av Jaroslaw Adamowski
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