- Published: 21.12.2005.
HŽ and Siemens Signed Agreement for Lease of Locomotives
Today Siemens and the Croatian Railways (Hrvatske željeznice – HŽ) signed a HRK 4.4 million worth agreement on a six months lease for two Siemens locomotives.
During the next six months, those locomotives will be used for exploitation tests and the education of staff; it will operate on the route Rijeka – Zagreb.
Those locomotives will finally allow ongoing traffic without having to stop at Moravice, At the moment this is necessary due to a switch of locomotives based on different systems of power supply along separate parts of the tracks.
The value of each new Siemens locomotive lies between EUR 3.2 and 3.6 million. According to Uwe Gregorius, president of Siemens Croatia, those locomotives are part of the 2nd generation of Siemens Eurosprinter locomotives, used by many European railway carriers.
At the end of the six months period, according to Davorin Kobak president of the HŽ, should the results be satisfactory - a prolongation of this arrangement would be possible.
Due to intensified traffic along the route Rijeka – Zagreb it would be necessary to enlarge the fleet. This would be important because during the last three months, based on an annual 7% increase of traffic intensity, that route used to register occasional jams.
On a long term, HŽ is planning to purchase new locomotives, and the contractor would be chosen with help of a public tender.
On that occasion, HŽ would also consider the domestic industry, which will have the opportunity to equally participate.
The HŽ president also announced, for Friday, the signing of an agreement on the construction of a city train prototype – needed for the Zagreb urban and suburban railway traffic. The parties included in the signing of the agreement will be the HŽ, the City of Zagreb and the companies Gredelj and Končar.
According to Marijan Klarić, deputy president of the HŽ, the value of that project will be approximately EUR 60 million, equally financed be the HŽ and the City of Zagreb.
After the construction of the prototype, he added, they were planning a public tender for the construction of trains for the urban and suburban railway. (Hina)