TMH Hungary has started the assembly of the first four coaches for Egypt at the Dunakeszi plant from where a total fleet of 680 units will be delivered to the Egyptian National Railways.
Initially, 96 third-class passenger cars with dynamic ventilation will be assembled at Dunakeszi. The final assembly works on these coaches include the installation of the control panels for the train attendants, seats, luggage racks, toilets and water supply system, as well as part of the electric cables and switches.
The bogies, the brake system, coupling equipment and buffers will be also installed at the Hungarian facility. The Dunakeszi team is also performing final assembly works on wheelsets for the Egyptian coaches. A first batch of 110 wheelsets was delivered to Tver plant in August.
As the second step of the process, starting 2021, the third-class HVAC passenger coaches will be manufactured in Hungary. The plant will receive empty car-bodies from Tver and will complete interior walls and floor cladding, isolation, lamp installation, and painting in addition to final assembly. Gradually, the production of coaches in Dunakeszi will ramp up to reach 25 vehicles per month by mid-2021.
As part of the transfer of technologies between Russia and Hungary, the Hungarian ENR project team took part in a 2-week training programme at TMH’s plant in Tver to get familiar with the production, testing and commissioning processes.
Since the acquisition of the Dunakeszi rail facility by TMH Hungary in June 2020, the new management has been focusing on preparing the site for the transfer of production of the coaches for Egypt. During this period, a project team was formed, the technical documentation and drawings were provided, the logistics chain was restructured, and the necessary parts were procured. TMH Hungary has also started searching for domestic suppliers and localising parts to meet the 51% of Hungarian content requirement. The necessary procurement processes are also under development.
“This project revives the long and proud tradition of rail manufacturing in Hungary and represents the largest ever order of rolling stock in the history of the country”, said Terence Watson, Senior Vice President Europe at TMH International and CEO of TMH Hungary.
In 2018, the Egyptian National Railways (ENR) awarded TMH Hungary a EUR 1 billion contract for the supply of 1,300 passenger coaches in five different models able to run at speeds of 120 km/h, with a 40-year lifecycle in both continental and coastal environments of Egypt.
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