JSC Ukrzaliznytsia plans to announce an open international tender for the purchase of rolling stock for the City Express project at the end of September, acting chairman of the board Oleksandr Kamyshin said.
“In February, the president [Volodymyr Zelensky] announced the City Express project in Kyiv, Dnipro and Kharkiv. Ukrzaliznytsia has intensified work in this direction. Today we are designing stations, completing a feasibility study of the project and terms of reference for the purchase of rolling stock for the Kyiv hub. In the near future we will send terms of reference for all Ukrainian and international potential participants in the purchase of rolling stock. At the end of September, we plan to announce an open international tender, where we will be glad to see both Stadler and other ready-made suppliers of rolling stock,” he said during the presentation of a five-car electric train Stadler Flirt of the Swiss company Stadler.
Kamyshin said that Stadler Flirt has been tested in Ukraine for a week.
“It is important for us to understand how good the technical and service indicators of this train are. We will be testing it for several more weeks. I think Ukrainians deserve a train of this level,” he said.
According to Stadler Rail Group CEO Peter Spuhler, the company has already sold about 2,000 units of Stadler Flirt.
Stadler Flirt is a family of passenger electric and diesel trains manufactured by the Swiss company Stadler Rail AG. FLIRT is an abbreviation (Flinker Leichter Innovativer Regional-Triebzug – German, translated as a high-speed light innovative regional train). The first train was designed and delivered in 2004. The maximum train speed is 160-200 km/h.
