CZECH State Railways (ČD) will invest more than Koruna 12bn ($US 514m) in the development of train maintenance and servicing facilities over the next seven years.
The breakdown of spending is as follows:
- Koruna 6bn: development of four new depots and refurbishment and expansion of six existing ones
- Koruna 1bn: development of controlled-emission toilet servicing facilities and track doubling at the Prague South depot for passenger rolling stock
- Koruna 3.5bn: remodelling of sidings across the network and installation of a new underfloor wheel lathe in Brno, and
- Koruna 1.5bn: purchase of machinery and equipment, including lifting jacks, mobile lifting platforms and diagnostic tools.
The investment in maintenance facilities complements the Koruna 160bn that ČD will invest in replacing life-expired rolling stock over the next decade.
"New vehicles need modern facilities for maintenance,” says Mr Michal Kraus, deputy board chairman and deputy director general of ČD. “We must invest in service facilities and technology that will allow us to fully use the advantages of their design, such as, for example, modular component systems or remote diagnostics and transmission of defect data between the vehicles and the depot.”
ČD purchases leased Vectrons
Separately, ČD is to purchase 10 multi-voltage 200km/h Vectron MS electric locomotives from Slovakian leasing company Rolling Stock Lease by exercising a buy-back option. This is the first time that ownership of leased locomotives in the ČD fleet will transfer to the operator, which expects to have a total of 61 Vectrons by the end of this year.
Last month ČD announced that Rolling Stock Lease had won the tender to finance 50 new Vectron MS locomotives for operation within the Czech Republic and in neighbouring countries.
