OREANDA-NEWS. November 24, 2010. Russian Railways signed an agreement with Siemens AG, in the presence of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, on setting up an engineering centre to produce multiple units, reported the press-centre of Russian Railways.

The document was signed by Russian Railways President Vladimir Yakunin, Siemens AG CEO Peter Loescher, and Siemens Mobility CEO Hans-Jorg Grundmann. The parties intend to establish long-term scientific-technical cooperation in developing, building, and testing new-generation multiple-unit trains for countries with 1520 mm gauge rail tracks, along with their components, fittings, parts, and details.

With this task in view, the parties will create an Engineering Centre, which will become a specialized sub-division of a joint venture for the production, delivery and servicing of modern Russian electric trains (a memorandum on creating the joint venture between Russian Railways and Siemens was signed on 15 July 2010).

The main areas of the Engineering Centre’s operations will be: developing design-engineering documents in compliance with the rules and regulations applicable in the Russian Federation, taking into account the new technology to be introduced in the manufacture of Desiro Rus series electric trains (the Lastochka) at the joint venture; providing the transfer of technology from Siemens AG to produce electric trains at the joint venture; and various areas of research and technical activities.
 
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Russian Railways signed a contract with Siemens AG on 17 December 2009 for the manufacture and delivery of 38 Lastochka electric trains for suburban transport. The contract is worth 410 million euros. Delivery of the trains is due by the end of 2013.

The Lastochka electric trains will carry passengers on suburban routes in central and southern Russia.

Siemens will produce the Lastochka trains at its Krefeld-Uerdingen plant in Germany, using the Desiro technical platform. All of the trains will be dual-system, for use on both AC and DC lines.

Each train will have five carriages, and total capacity of more than 850 passengers, including four seats for physically impaired persons.

The maximum speed of the Lastochka will be 160 km/h. The auto-brake equipment and traction characteristics are designed for safe use in mountain conditions. The Lastochka trains are adapted for use in low temperatures - without additional modifications, they can operate in temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius.

Also, on 21 September in Berlin, Russian Railways, Seimens AG, and Siemens Russia signed a contract for the delivery of an additional 16 Lastochka electric suburban passenger trains, with the launch of localized production in Russia (accounting for around 35%). They will be produced by the joint venture that will be created by spring 2011 between Russian Railways, Siemens AG, and Aeroexpress. These trains will appear in Russia by the end of 2014.

Russian Railways is currently in discussions with Siemens AG and the potential founders of the joint venture on the purchase of 1,200 carriages for suburban trains by 2020. This would imply a level of localization of 80% by 2017, i.e. the trains would be almost fully produced in Russia.