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International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics Friday, 29.03.2024, 08:41

Latvian Pasazieru Vilciens announces second round of electric train purchase tender

BC, Riga, 14.06.2017.Print version
Pasazieru Vilciens (Passenger Trains) rail company today announced the second round of a tender to supply 32 new electric passenger trains, the company’s representative Egons Alers told LETA.

He indicated that new rolling stock is necessary for the company’s successful integration in the new public transport system, which has been worked out by the Road Transport Administration and will be launched in 2021. The rail company’s existing passenger trains which are more than 50 years old and obsolete will have no place in the new transport system.


The timetable for the delivery of the new electric trains will be adjusted to the railway electrification project, the first phase of which is scheduled for completion in 2023. The new trains will allow significantly increase the intensity of rail traffic and ensure a level of comfort consistent with modern-day requirements.


Pasazieru Vilciens has sent invitations to the second round of the tender to Spanish company Patentes Talgo S.L. (Talgo), Poland’s Stadler Polska Sp. Z.o.o., which is a subsidiary of Swiss company Stadler, Uralskie Lokomotivi, the Russian joint venture of Siemens AG and Sinara Group, Spain’s Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles S.A. (CAF) and Czech company Skoda Vagonka a.s.


The potential train suppliers will be expected to submit their technical proposals, followed by the submission of financial bids and their assessment. Pasazieru Vilciens plans to sign the train purchase contract at the beginning of next year.


The main criteria in the negotiations procedure will include train delivery, energy and other costs of the trains’ lifecycle per seat.


Pasazieru Vilciens CEO Andris Lubans said on Latvian Radio today that in line with the delivery timetable the first new passenger trains should arrive in 2020. The last trains are supposed to arrive in 2023.


Nils Sakss, director of the fiscal policy department of the Finance Ministry, said that the project will have no significant impact on Latvia’s budget deficit in the next coming years, but that its effect will become stronger after 2020.


He indicated that the ministry has been closely following the train purchase project, given that its total costs would reach an estimated EUR 200 mln.


As reported, Pasazieru Vilciens will continue its procurement for new electric trains, even though the project will have an impact on the state budget, as the government supported the move in principle yesterday.


A report that the government took into consideration during a meeting on April 11 said that, should the current train procurement project be implemented as is, its impact on the general government sector balance could amount to EUR 19.2 mln in 2019 and EUR 63.9 mln in 2020, reducing the amount of financing available for new policy initiatives almost by half in 2020.


The Transport Ministry's latest report analyzes the effect of the project on the general government budget balance and debt before the commencement of the second round of the procurement project. Pasazieru Vilciens has estimated the predicted impact on the budget. The estimations include net impact, but not the overall project costs.


Pasazieru Vilciens reported that the negative impact on the general government budget is projected at EUR 5.7 mln in 2019, EUR 25.6 mln in 2020, EUR 44.7 mln in 2021, EUR 50.4 mln in 2022, and EUR 38.8 mln in 2023.






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