KYIV. Sept 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Public joint-stock company Ukrzaliznytsia is testing TE33А freight diesel locomotive made by General Electric Corporation (the United States).
“The General Electric’s locomotive is being tested in Ukraine. The tests will last for four months. All its capabilities will be tested,” Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan said at the presentation of the locomotive in Kyiv on Wednesday.
He recalled that by late October Ukrzaliznytsia will draw up a five-year Ukrainian locomotive and wagon modernization plan. Foreign experts will be involved in this work in the second half of October – leading locomotive manufacturers and experts with experience of railways transformation.
“We believe that the locomotive presented by General Electric will be a success. I would like that General Electric was not only a strategic partner of the Olympic Games, but a strategic partner of Ukraine. The corporation has all facilities for this. There are enough directions for cooperation: railways, aviation, other spheres where the corporation has proved to be a global leader,” the minister said.
Omelyan said that TE33А diesel locomotive allows saving fuel and lubricants and doubling the loading capacity.
The minister did not give an affirmative response to the question what the likelihood to buy the locomotive is. He said that negotiations with all leading manufacturers would be held to determine a strategic partner in production of locomotives in Ukraine.
