OREANDA-NEWS. The International Rail Business Forum “Strategic partnership 1520” took place in Minsk on 9–11 October. The forum serves as a platform for concluding important international agreements on strategic rail developments, as well as major contracts for the supply and maintenance of railroad engineering. As part of the forum, Aeroexpress and the Stadler Rail Group organized an excursion for Russian journalists to the factory that is currently under construction in Belarus, which will start producing double-deck rolling stock for Moscow Aeroexpress routes already next year.

Construction works, which are already in progress in the Belarus city of Fanipol, shall become a plant for producing rail and passenger urban electric transport technology, which will be manufactured involving investments by Switzerland’s Stadler Rail Group. In just a few months, the plant shops will release new double-deck railcars, which will replace regular Aeroexpress trains connecting Moscow rail terminals and airports.

On 11 October, a delegation of Russian journalists went to inspect the future giant plant. The excursion to the plant’s construction site involved Peter Jenelten, Executive Vice-President for Marketing & Sales at the Stadler Rail Group; Philipp Brunner, Deputy Director for Production at the Stadler Rail Group; and Evgeny Chelbaev, Chief Technical Officer of Aeroexpress, as well as leading national media representatives.

The territory of the future plant is now a huge construction site, but all the works are gaining momentum, the pace of which should peak at the end of this year. The commissioning of the enterprise is expected to create more than 1 million jobs; additional training will be organized for workers and specialists at Stadler branches in Europe. The whole project will be implemented stage by stage. Production will begin as soon as next year.

A separate shop will be used for manufacturing double-deck railcars exclusively for Aeroexpress. “The first three Aeroexpress trains (two 4-railcar and one 6-railcar train sets) will be produced in Switzerland,” said Peter Jenelten, Executive Vice President Marketing & Sales at the Stadler Rail Group. “The remaining 22 trains from this order will be assembled at the new plant in Fanipol.” The new railcars for the Russian capital will be based on the existing KISS trains, only with some technical amendments. In particular, the width and height parameters of the new rolling stock will be changed due to differences in gauge size standards for Russian and European railroads. Higher requirements for performance under falling temperatures during Russia’s winter will also be considered. The light aluminium used to construct the new trains will replace heavy steel, which is traditionally used for rolling stock. That will make it possible to significantly reduce its weight and lower operation costs. The new electric trains will have a maximum speed of 160 km/h.
The new train sets will be put into service in 2015, and the entire Aeroexpress fleet in Moscow will be fully renewed by the end of 2016.