Some of the 88-seater third-class passenger coaches
Rail rolling stock manufacturer Transmashholdings (TMH) in 2020 delivered 226 88-seater third-class passenger coaches, with dynamic ventilation, to Egyptian National Railways (ENR) from the TMH competence centre in Tver, Russia.
The €1-billion contract for 1 300 passenger coaches awarded by ENR in September 2018 took effect in May 2020, after the financing agreement was concluded between Hungary and Russia in December 2019. This agreement includes 51% of Hungarian content.
The contract also includes 800 air-conditioned coaches, comprising 500 third-class, 180 second-class, 90 first-class and 30 restaurant coaches.
The latest shipment of 19 coaches reached Egypt on January 7 and 207 of the coaches now operate on the Egyptian rail network.
In June 2020, TMH delivered the first coaches to Alexandria.
Since July 2020, the company has been supplying 35 coaches a month, and at the end of July, the coaches started to operate on three commercial routes – Cairo to Alexandria (208 km), Cairo to Asyut (380 km), and Cairo to Sohag (473 km).
TMH International CTO David John says 2020 was a crucial year for the ENR project. “2020 marked the launch of the serial production and monthly deliveries to the customer, in addition to the start of works in Hungary.”
He adds that it was a challenging year in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, but that TMH managed to keep the high delivery tempo of one coach a day. “We are looking forward in 2021 to launching the production of the second model of car equipped with air-conditioning.”
The completion of the next six coaches is planned for February.
The lifecycle of the coaches in both continental and coastal environments of Egypt is 40 years.