With an acknowledged industrial strategy, using standardized components and paying special attention to design, Alstom Transport provides a series of railway vehicles which combine technology, reliability and comfort to deliver latest-technology products that meet mobility demands.
Railway transport is evolving and operators’ requirements become more and more demanding for both freight and passenger transport: reliability, availability, competitiveness and comfort being the fundamental requirements. The solution provided by Alstom Transport was the development of a new generation of freight transport vehicles (with maximum speed of 140 km/h) and of passenger transport vehicles (maximum speed 200 km/h) – Prima II locomotive whose platform guarantees performance and a broad range of configurations.
Its modularity permits the customization of the customers’ requirements, whether upon acquisition or afterwards and can adapt to different applications. This way, the locomotive remains in the first line of technology along its entire lifecycle.
The main components are standardized: signalling, Bobo and CoCo bogies and the Onix traction system which enables the transport of over 20 thousand tonnes. Each axle can individually guarantee 75% of the locomotive’s performance.
Another advantage of the vehicle is interoperability. It has the capacity to be custo-mized for European cross-border services and can also be adapted to prevalent worldwide standards. The platform of the locomotive can be developed for the markets whose railway network has a different gauge than the European one (Russia, Finland, Kazakhstan etc.).
Energy-supply and safety equipment are different from one country to another. In order to facilitate cross-border traffic, Prima II locomotive can be adapted with equipment and pantographs that can make it run on any network (25 kV, 15 kV, 1,500 V and 3,000 V).
One of the latest projects of Alstom Transport for the transport of freight is the launch of the locomotives developed in partnership with Transmashholding (TMH), 2ES5 for Russia and KZ8A for Kazakhstan. Both vehicles are among the strongest in the world and made the partnership of the two companies successful.
2ES5 is the first Russian locomotive with asynchronous traction capable to carry a freight volume of over 9,000 tonnes and reach speeds of up to 120 km/h. The innovative solutions for this locomotive include traction, modular design and electronic braking system to prevent the wear of brake pads. Also, the 2ES5 locomotive introduces a new technological level of ergonomics and driver comfort.
The KZ8A locomotive was specially designed to operate in conditions of extremely low temperatures:-50° C. The first vehicle has already been tested in real conditions in Kazakhstan on the route Astana- Yermentau – Karaganda. The locomotives to be deli-
vered are in trial tests. By the end of the year, 12 vehicles will be delivered to Kazakhstan. They are manufactured at EKZ plant, a JV of Kazakhstan Railways (KTZ), Alstom and THM, in Astana. KTZ has placed an order for 200 locomotives.
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