International News from Railways Illustrated

Class 182 passenger changes
DB Fernverkehr is planning to introduce Class 182s from the small pool based at Cottbus (for DB Regio services) on the Eurocity service from Hamburg to Krakow (as far as Cottbus in Germany where a Polish SU46 diesel takes over). More Class 182 will also transfer to DB Regio in December for S-Bahn services in Dresden.
Separately DB Fernverkehr is reported to be planning to return all the MRCE Class 182.5s currently used on overnight/Autozug trains plus some weekend IC trains. The use of MRCE Class 185.5s on Frankfurt to Würzburg services should also end in mid June. KF

OBB buys Desiro ML
Siemens is to sell up to 200 Desiro three-car ML EMUs to Austrian Railways (OBB) in contract worth up to €1bn (including maintenance).
The trains will be ordered in batches – some are for tenders OBB is planning to make in Germany and will only be built if OBB is successful in winning these contracts. Some of the new trains to be build in either Krefeld (Germany) or Wien will be used by OBB both to replace older EMUs in Austria.
Siemens is building 305 three-car sets for Belgian Railways (SNCB) for the planned Brussels RER network and to replace older EMUs. The prototypes of this type are now undergoing dynamic testing at the Siemens Wildenrath test centre.
Siemens has delivered 17 Class 460 Desiro ML EMUs to German regional operator Transregio (leased via Alpha Trains) and also has contracts for Desiro ML from both Russia and China. KF

New locos for Polish operators
Polish national passenger operators PKP IC and regional operator Przewozy Regionalne (formerly part of State Railway PKP but now owned by Poland’s regional governments) have both recently introduced brand new electric locos – and both are now operating through services to Germany with them.
Przewozy Regionalne recently introduced long distance Inter Regio trains; also branded RegioEkspres (many of which are loco-hauled and use ten Class 189 multi voltage electrics (189450-459) on hire from MRCE). Regional services from Poznan to Frankfurt an der Oder in Germany are now Class 189.4 operated.
Long distance operator PKP IC has two types of brand new Siemens built locos; five Class 189.1 (189151-155) on hire from MRCE and ten Taurus Class 183s – which are now designated as Class 370. In May the 189.1s were working Warszawa-Berlin EC trains as far as Rzepin and from early June working to Berlin with the daily sleeper train from Moscow to Berlin. Class 183/370s are likely to gradually replace the Class 189.1s on all these services working Berlin to Warszawa from mid June onwards. Neither batch of Class 189s is likely to remain in Poland working passenger services long term (the 189.4s replaced a batch of leased Class 186 TRAXX locos at very short notice in March). KF.

Russian loco and EMU orders
On May 27 an agreement was signed by Russian Railways (RZD), Siemens and Aeroexpress to start production of Desiro RUS EMUs. Series production will commence in 2014 and capacity should later reach 200 vehicles a year. The trains will be based on the Desiro units being built for the 2014 winter Olympic Games in Sochi which was agreed in 2009 for an order of 38 sets.
Also on May 27 an agreement was signed between RZD and Ural Locomotives for an order of 221 2ES10 twin-section electric locomotives. A prototype will be completed in 2010 and deliveries of the production locos will follow in 2011. They will be constructed at Verkhnyaya Pyshma near Yekaterinburg by UL which is a joint venture of Siemens (49%) and OJSC Sinara Transport Machines (51%).
A few days later on June 3 RZD signed a €1bn contract with Alstom-TMH for 200 class EP20 passenger locomotives. The dual voltage (3kV DC/25kV AC) will be first of new type with the recent alliance between Transmash Holding and Alstom Transport.
The locos will be built at TMH’s Novocherkassk factory and will be a Bo-Bo-Bo wheel arrangement with IGBT technology and asynchronous traction motors. The first loco should be ready in spring 2011 and deliveries should continue until 2020. RZD expects to use the locos on Moscow-Sochi trains during the Olympic Winter Games in 2014.

Greek Railways going private?
On June 2 the Greek government announced the part privatisation of OSE (Greek Railways), it is part of state-owned road, port, airport, utility and land assets to be sold in the aim to reduce debt and tackle the economic crises in Greece.
A strategic investor will be offered 49% of the ‘Train OSE’ operating business which will be responsible for the management of the services. It is likely that passenger and freight services will be split into two divisions as well as staff reductions and possible closure of loss making lines.