The deal was signed today at the Expo 1520 forum in Shcherbinka, Russia, along with the final Euros 2bn contract for an additional 240 five-car Desiro Rus emus from Train Technologies, a joint venture of Siemens and Sinara, following a provisional order which was agreed in June (IRJ July p12). The entire third batch of vehicles will be manufactured in Russia at the Ural Locomotive's factory near Yekaterinburg, where Siemens has built electric freight locomotives in cooperation with Sinara since 2010. Siemens began manufacturing the first 38 Desiro Rus trains at its Krefeld, Germany, plant in April, with a second batch of 16 trains to be manufactured at Krefeld and Yekaterinburg from the end of 2012. The 40-year maintenance contract will commence in 2013 with the first Desiro Rus trains entering passenger service in Sochi in autumn 2013 in time for the Winter Olympic Games in 2014. Siemens will be responsible for preventative maintenance activities such as checking the brake and passenger systems as well as managing service work and supplying spare parts at RZD's depots in Adler, near Sochi, and Moscow. Desiro Rus has a maximum speed of 160km/h and has been adapted from the Desiro ML model for the Russian market. Siemens CEO Mr Peter Löscher, who signed the agreement along with Mr Vladimir Yakunin, president of RZD, and Mr Dmitriy Pumpyanskiy, president of Sinara, says that the company will invest €200m on modern buildings, machine tools and personnel training to produce Desiro Rus in Russia. "Siemens is the most successful non-Russian supplier of railway technology in [Russia]," Löscher says. "By localising production activities we are strengthening this market position and securing our close ties with the Russian railway industry."