First Belarus-made double-decker train presented in Moscow

The first double-decker train produced by the joint Belarusian-Swiss enterprise Stadler Minsk for the company Aeroexpress was presented at the Ilyich locomotive depot of the Belorussky railway station in Moscow on 13 November, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian Embassy in Russia.

Partaking in the ceremony were Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, Belarus' Ambassador to Russia Igor Petrishenko, Director General of Stadler Rail Group Peter Spuhler, and Aeroexpress Director General Alexei Krivoruchko.

Director General of Stadler Rail Group Peter Spuhler handed over the symbolic key to the first double-decker train to Aeroexpress Director General Alexei Krivoruchko. “Today we have witnessed a landmark event for the Russian people: the first double-decker train of the European level has been delivered to Russia,” Alexei Krivoruchko said.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin examined the train and noted that its ultramodern car represents an absolutely new generation of public transport and will allow increasing the number of commuters.

“The project is of great importance for us as this year alone we will carry around 18 million passengers. You can imagine what would happen if all these 18 million of people drove on the roads to the Moscow airports. It would be a complete traffic collapse,” the Moscow Mayor said. He expressed hope that in the next 3 to 4 years almost all the old railway vehicles of the Aeroexpress company will be replaced with the new ones.

The first double-decker train was named Aeroexpress Eurasia. It was specially designed for the Russian climate conditions, where the temperature can vary between 50 degrees below zero and 40 degrees above. The trains will be tested and certified at the experimental ground in Shcherbinka near Moscow. The commercial operation of the first train will start in June 2015, while the last train will be commissioned in June 2016. The first four trains will be assembled in Switzerland, while the remaining 21 trains will be assembled in Belarus. The pre-commissioning works will be carried out at the joint venture in Fanipol, and after that the new trains will be delivered to Moscow with an interval of two to three weeks. The price of the contract to build the double-decker trains is €685 million (VAT and option on 54 cars included). The company ordered 25 electric trains, 16 of them with four cars, nine with six cars. During the rush hour the cars will be combined 4+4 or 4+6. The operating life of the trains is 40 years.