United Wagon Company and Eurosib SPb-Transport Systems sign a lend lease agreement of platforms and box cars

In the framework of the Fifth International Fair of Railway Equipment and Technologies Expo 1520 Research and Production Corporation "United Wagon Company" and Eurosib SPb-Transport Systems, one of the leading private company rail operators in Russia, have signed a lend lease agreement for up to 600 railcars of 60-feet platforms and up to 100 box cars with improved technical and economic features.

The agreement provides for the long-term lease of the specialized rolling stock in the course of 2016-2017.

The platform of 13-6895 model for timber and lumber transportation has a 70 ton-carrying load and 60-feet length that gives possibility to transport in three 6-meter woodpiles and that fact allows paying railway tariffs as for a short wheelbase vehicle that significantly reduces the cost of freight transporting per ton compared to rival products. The new design for side stakes of uniform section maintains the packaged cargo integrity and significantly reduces the "idle" volume.

The box car of 11-6874 model is a new type of rolling stock that has not been represented in RPC UWC product lineup before. The car has 72.5 ton-carrying capacity and 175 m3-cubic capacity. The car design ensures load integrity during transportation and keeps from atmospheric precipitation inside the car and it is designed to facilitate loading/ unloading.

The platform for timber transportation and the boxcar are equipped with Barber bogies of 25-tf axle load. The use of the high-tech bogies enhances car dynamical characteristics, improves its operation safety, increases mileage between repairs and reduces life-cycle cost.

The platform and the box car prototypes underwent preliminary and certification tests and tests in service confirming the car availability to work under actual operating conditions.

Earlier this year RPC UWC and Eurosib-SPb Transport Systems signed the long-term lease agreement of up to 1 thousand 40-feet platforms. Since 2011, the railway operator has taken on lease batches of container platforms, box cars and hoppers for mineral fertilizers.

It should be noted that the fleet of specialzed cars has been hardly updated during the past 20 years, and its amortization reaches up to 90% in some areas. According to the experts, in the midterm the annual write-off of specialized cars can total from 8 to 13 thousand units. However, upward trend of transportation in these types of the rolling stock will boost demand for new generation specialized cars in years to come.

Igor Tolstikhin, Executive Director at Eurosib SPb-Transportation Systems , said: "The cars equipped with Barber bogies are the unique product at the1520 mm gauge area, which let our company strengthen its position in the market. We already have an experience in operating innovative freight cars manufactured by TVSZ, and thanks to that fact, we could see that the new generation rolling stock significantly increases the operational efficiency of railways freight traffic.

Alexander Lukyanenko, Deputy CEO for Strategic Sales at RPC UWC, added: "Our companies have stable and mutually beneficial relationship. The agreement on the new batch of cars is the following step in extension of our cooperation and successful market majors’ confirmation of market advantages in the new generation fleet operation. We are trying to respond quickly to our customers’ requests and we are carefully examining demands on the market in order to offer the most efficient rolling stock to our partners and customize products to meet specific customer requirements.