Siemens is planning to sign a contract with Russian Railways (RZD) before February 2007 to service eight high-speed trains, Ilya Timofeyev, head of the German company's Transport Equipment department, told reporters on Tuesday in Moscow.
"We should sign the contract to service high-speed trains by February 2007," he said.
The first trains should be delivered at the end of 2008 and all trains will have been delivered by 2010, Timofeyev said.
The high-speed trains will run between Moscow and St. Petersburg, but this section can currently only handle trains that run at a speed up to 200 kilometers per hour, he said. "RZD needs to upgrade the route and contact grid so that trains can run at a speed of up to 250 kph," he said.
Dietrich Meller, Siemens President in Russia, said the most problematic part of the route is in Moscow and in St. Petersburg, where there is high suburban train traffic.
RZD and Siemens signed a contract in May to supply eight high-speed trains at a cost of around 340 million euros. The entire contract, including servicing, is estimated at 640 million euros. |
