TMH will produce over 1200 bogies at its South African rail facility in Boksburg. This supply will equip approximately half of the 1300 passenger coaches that the Egyptian National Railways are acquiring from the TMH Group.
“This bogie design is “a first” for our Boksburg facility, broadening our narrow gauge expertise to standard gauge passenger coach bogies rated for a design speed of 140 kilometres per hour.” shares TMH Africa Managing Director, Jerome Boyet.
TMH Africa is being transferred the technology of the bogie frames from the TMH Group in Russia and is utilizing the welding expertise of its south African workforce to deliver on the contract. Last year, Boksburg facility was certified EN15085, recognising its welding competencies according to European standards.
The locally manufactured bogie was successfully type tested earlier this year in Europe, completing the 10 million mandatory testing cycles, as well as the First Article Inspection (FAI) process. The first batch of the 20 bogies is being delivered to TMH Hungary rail facility, where the passenger coaches for Egypt are built. Throughout the three years project, TMH Africa will be delivering up to 50 bogies per month.
The deal is an unprecedented Africa to Africa collaboration which shows that Africa can trade with itself to deliver world class products.
“This deal demonstrates TMH’s willingness to leverage African expertise in its global supply chain. Delivering on a continental project from South Africa is demonstration of the reality of the intra Africa trade and shows the Cape to Cairo aspirations can be realised through targeted and deliberate collaboration between industries and countries. We are very happy to pioneer in this field.”, concluded J. Boyet.
TMH Africa is ISO9001/14731 and EN15085 certified, with a workforce of 280 employees 37 of whom are women.
In September 2018, the Egyptian National Railways awarded TMH with the supply of 1300 passenger coaches of five different models: 500 third-class coaches with dynamic ventilation, 500 third-class, 180 second-class, 90 first-class air-conditioned cars, and 30 coaches-restaurant. The maximum speed of the coaches is 140 kph with a 40-year lifecycle in both continental and coastal environments of Egypt. The contract entered into force in May 2020, and to date, 400 coaches have been delivered to the customer.