The flat wagons will be manufactured at UWC’s Tikhvin freight wagon manufacturing facility, with the wagons to be delivered on a monthly basis from June through to February next year.
The wagons are mounted on 25-TF bogies, and have a payload capacity of 74.5 tonnes and a loading length of 80 feet (24.3m) which allows them to carry high-capacity containers, including refrigerated and tank containers with a gross mass of up to 36 tonnes.
Life-cycle maintenance costs have also been reduced, with up to one million km or eight years between overhauls.
Eurosib had been leasing 285 UWC platforms for three years before purchasing them from the manufacturer in 2017. An agreement was signed in 2018 for the supply of 500 additional wagons, with delivery expected to be completed by May.
“At present, the share of UWC freight wagons in Eurosib’s container platform fleet stands at 70%,” says Mr Sergey Kondratenko, deputy CEO for projects and technical policies at Eurosib and CEO of ERVK. “With the new contract signed, the figure will grow. The rolling stock from the Tikhvin facility allows us not only to save on operational expenses, but also to roll out new container services and bolster existing ones.
“Local regulations for allocating and securing TEUs have already been cleared for the container platforms, so that we can start operating the new railcars as soon as they are delivered.”
