Egypt receives 2nd batch of Transmashholding railcars

CAIRO – 11 July 2020: Chairman of the Egyptian Railway Authority (ERA) Ashraf Raslan affirmed the receipt of 10 Transmashholding railcars as they arrived in Alexandria Port Friday.

The third-class vehicles – having dynamic ventilation - are manufactured in Russia, and are the second batch of a deal worth €1.16 billion to supply 1,300 passenger railcars. The first batch consisting of 22 vehicles was delivered in June.

Raslan said that the model car received in June 2019 is still being experimented without passengers on railroads, and that the first and second batches are sent to Abou Ghates Workshop in Cairo in order to form completely new trains this month.

In July 2019, ERA endorsed the technical specifications of two passenger railcars that were supposed to be supplied by Transmashholding in September of the same year. One would be tested in Hungary, so it would be granted the safety certification by the European Railway Agency. The other is tested in Egypt.
 

The contract states that 650 railcars will be supplied from Hungary, 500 will be delivered by Russia, and 150 will be manufactured by Egypt under the supervision of Transmashholding. An Egyptian locomotive factory will be established as part of a plan to localize the locomotive industry in Egypt and transfer the know-how to workers, technicians, and engineers in the sector. The factory will produce 150 railcars and also provide maintenance services.
 

The contract consists of 500 third-class air-conditioned railcars, 180 second-class air-conditioned railcars, 90 first-class air-conditioned railcars, 500 third-class dynamic-ventilation railcars, and 30 air-conditioned cabooses.

The contract is funded by a soft loan worth €1.02 billion granted by Hungarian Export-Import Bank (EXIM) and State Specialized Russian Export- Import Bank (Eximbank of Russia). The 1,300 railcars shall be delivered over batches within 40 months by the end of 2021 once the loan procedures were finalized in December 2019.

Sources at the Ministry of Transportation told Egypt Today that the delivery of the first batch of Russian railcars contracted for with Transmashholding got delayed to March instead of the end of 2019 as the loan procedures had been finalized in December 2019.

Nevertheless, the number of railcars in the first batch doubled to become 60 including the model railcar that was tested on Egyptian railways. Also, the total number of railcars delivered by June had to be 180. Yet, the delivery timeline has been changed due to COVID-19 outbreak.

In a similar context, sources at the Egyptian Railway Authority (ERA) told Egypt Today that the fifth batch of the train engines supplied by General Electric will arrive in August.

The batch will consist of 20 units bringing up the total supplied units to 90. Until present, 44 entered service.

The contract, worth $602.05 million, provides that the company supplies 110 train engines, rehabilitates 81 others of the current fleet at Tebin Workshop in Cairo, and supplies spare parts for 15 years, in addition to offering technical support.

Almost 50% of railroads, stations development in Egypt completed

CAIRO - 5 July 2020: Minister of Transportation Kamel al-Wazir held a meeting Sunday with the chairperson and board members of the Egyptian Railway Authority (ERA) to follow up on the accomplishment rate of the development of stations and railways.