Uzbekistan to acquire two high-speed Talgo trains

The national railway company of Uzbekistan (UTY) has announced it is to acquire two new high-speed Talgo trains, which will be identical to those already in service in the country, the only one of its kind in Central Asia. The contract amounts to €57-million and the project foresees the delivery of the first units to start passenger operation in 2021.

The announcement of the awarded contract confirms the confidence placed by this operator in Talgo´s rolling stock over the last decade and particularly in the T250 trains, able to achieve seamless interoperability worldwide.

The contract has been formalized with the signing for the financing of the project, approved by the Council of Ministers and granted to the Republic of Uzbekistan from the Fund for the Internationalization of the Enterprise (FIEM), due to the high Spanish component of the project.

The T250 trains are made up of 11 coaches and two power heads at each end, which can circulate at a speed of up to 250km/h, while remaining capable of adapting to every curve, and to develop the maximum top speed on conventional lines thanks to Talgo’s tilting technology. This technology enables the train to improve the speed in curves by up to 25%, reducing journey times in the existing lines without having to invest in new infrastructure.

The new trains will also operate under the Afrosiyob brand and will connect the capital Taskent, with Samarkand, and the cities of Qarshi, Bukhara and Jiva, together with the four units already in service.

The first two Talgo 250 trainsets of nine passenger cars each were purchased in 2009 and started operating in 2011. Four years later, the operator UTY acquired two new compositions, with 11 coaches each, which started circulating in 2017.

The awarded project includes, in addition to the supply of two new units, the manufacture of four additional coaches to add to the existing nine-coaches trains which were purchased in 2009. The final fleet will consist of six trains with 11 passenger cars each.

Afrosiyob trains comfortably comply with strict requirements to operate in Uzbekistan’s extreme weather conditions, which can reach peak temperatures of 40ºC during the summer months, and frequently plummet below -25ºC during the winter season.

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