By KYIV. Dec 15 (Interfax-Ukraine) – JSC Ukrzaliznytsia plans to attract leading Ukrainian companies to repair mainline freight diesel locomotives of the TE33AC series manufactured by Wabtec Corporation to provide the company with the necessary volume of scarce equipment and spare parts.
As the press service of Ukrzaliznytsia reported on Friday, this was discussed at a meeting with specialized manufacturing enterprises, dedicated to the promising possibilities of building a concept for localizing in Ukraine the repair production of linear equipment and components of TE33AC diesel locomotives.
The meeting was attended by representatives of Ukrainian manufacturers.
“We began receiving these diesel locomotives in 2018. Today, the warranty period has expired, and the question arose of how to repair locomotives in war conditions. We considered many options, services at different levels, and we developed a single logical solution – to involve Ukrainian business as much as possible in the development of all technical details and reach a common understanding of further actions,” the press service quoted Viacheslav Yeremin, a member of the Ukrzaliznytsia board of directors.
As reported by acting Director of the Ukrzaliznytsia’s locomotive department Oleksandr Bohdanov, the diesel locomotive manufacturer supplied all the units and components required under the contracts for the maintenance of locomotives, but Ukrzaliznytsia is exploring the promising possibility of localizing in Ukraine the production of the necessary equipment and spare parts for repairs.
“In 2024, we are already entering a period of need to repair locomotives, where individual components, assemblies, etc. must be replaced. Therefore, we strive to ensure that Ukrainian manufacturers study all technical issues and tell us a range of possibilities for the future,” he said.
During the meeting, the issue of production by Ukrainian companies of acutely scarce spare parts as part of import substitution, previously produced by the Russian Federation, for mainline diesel locomotives of the 2TE116, 2TE10, M62 series running on the railways of Ukraine was also discussed.
GE Transportation (in 2019 it was merged with Wabtec Corporation) and KCBW in June 2018 signed an agreement on 10% localization of production of 30 TE33A Evolution series locomotives, which Ukrzaliznytsia received in February 2019.
