Federal Passenger Company and PATENTES TALGO S.L. sign contract to design and supply passenger trains

The Federal Passenger Company, a subsidiary of Russian Railways, and the Spanish company PATENTES TALGO S.L. have signed a contract to design and supply passenger trains.

The document was signed by Mikhail Akulov, Vice-President of Russian Railways and Managing Director of the Federal Passenger Company, and Carlos-Maria de Palacio Oriol, Chairman of the Board of PATENTES TALGO S.L., at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on 18 June 2011 in the presence of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Spanish Prime Minister Rodriguez Zapatero.

According to the contract, PATENTES TALGO S.L. will supply the Federal Passenger Company with 7 trains with twenty wagons equipped with automatic gauge adjustment for use on both narrow and broad-gauge track.

The contract was drawn up pursuant to an agreement on concluding contracts for the delivery and maintenance of passenger carriages manufactured by PATENTES TALGO S.L., which was signed between Russian Railways and the Spanish rolling stock producer on 25 February 2011.

The Talgo trains are scheduled to enter service between Moscow – Kiev and Moscow – Berlin.

It is expected that the use of the Talgo will significantly reduce travel time from 13 hours to 7 hours between Moscow – Kiev and from 27 hours to 18 hours between Moscow – Berlin.

This faster travel time will result partly from carrying out border and customs procedures on board while the train is in motion, partly from the Talgo’s advanced technical features.

The Talgo features a mechanism to change the gauge of its bogies automatically from the Russian national broad-gauge standard of 1520 mm to the European narrow-gauge width of 1435 mm, as well as a coach-tilting system, which allows greater speeds through tight bends, cutting the time for their negotiation by 20-30%.