THE president of Russian Railways (RZD), Mr Vladimir Yakunin, joined a demonstration run at the Russian Railway Research Institute (VNIIZhT) Scherbinka test track on June 10 on the first of seven trains being supplied by Patentes Talgo, Spain, under a contract awarded in June 2012.
VNIIZhT is carrying out certification and acceptance tests which are due to be completed in September. Two Talgo coaches will also be tested at the RailTec Arsenal climatic chamber in Vienna.
Three of the trains are fitted with automatic gauge changing equipment to enable them to operate on 1520mm and 1435mm-gauge tracks. These trains will be introduced by Federal Passenger Company on the Moscow - Berlin route in December 2015.
Yakunin announced at Scherbinka that the remaining four trains will be deployed on the Moscow - Nizhny Novgorod line. This will allow the Sapsan high-speed trains currently running on the route to be transferred to the Moscow - St Petersburg line where a regular-interval service will be introduced.
The 200km/h trains have passive body tilting. Each train comprises 18 passenger coaches and two technical cars, with dining and bistro cars, and a mixture of first and second class seating coaches and sleeping cars. Deluxe sleeping cars are also provided with en-suite facilities. All coaches are air-conditioned, have electric heating and are equipped with ecologically-friendly toilets.
VNIIZhT signed a contract with Talgo on February 7 to define the services it will provide during the project to develop Talgo passenger coaches for use on 1520mm-gauge infrastructure. This follows an agreement in January between RZD and Talgo to adapt its equipment for operation in Russia as RZD strives to replace much of its passenger coach fleet by 2030.