Baku, Azerbaijan, July 12
By Fikret Dolukhanov – Trend:
Alstom’s first contracted freight locomotive for the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway presented last week in Astana will be delivered to Azerbaijan from Kazakhstan in September, the French company told Trend July 12.
Delivery of the locomotive to Baku is planned until the end of 2018, however, Alstom is expecting the decision of the Azerbaijan Railways on this issue, the company said.
Alstom’s first passenger locomotive for BTK is already in Baku.
Alstom earlier presented its first electric freight locomotive Prima T8 AZ8A for Azerbaijan Railways. The presentation of the locomotive was held at the Electric Locomotives Assemblage Factory (EKZ), located on the territory of the Astana special economic zone.
The first AZ8A locomotive became a part of the contract signed by EKZ with "Azerbaijan Railways" in 2014 for the supply of 50 locomotives, including 10 passenger locomotives Prima M4 AZ4A. AZ8A is a heavy-duty freight locomotive from the Prima T8 series, which is based on the KZ8A locomotive, currently operated in Kazakhstan. AZ8A is designed for operation at temperatures from -25 to 50 degrees Celsius.
The locomotive is designed according to the specific technical requirements provided by the ARW Company, and also meets the GOST and TU standards. Prima T8 is one of the most powerful electric locomotives in the world.
The model consists of two sections, is able to pull a train weighing up to 9,000 tons and reach a speed of 120 km/h.
Earlier, Chairman of Azerbaijan Railways Javid Gurbanov said that the passenger transportation via the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will begin in 2019.
He noted that the passenger transportation will be launched after receiving passenger trains ordered from Stadler.
The official opening ceremony of the BTK railway was held in Baku Oct. 30 last year. The BTK railway was constructed on the basis a Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish intergovernmental agreement.
The railway’s peak capacity will be 17 million tons of cargo per year. At an initial stage, this figure will be one million passengers and 6.5 million tons of cargo.
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