South Caucasus Railway launches first repaired electric train

ArmInfo. On November 7, the South Caucasus Railway (SCR) launched the first repaired electric train at the Yerevan locomotive depot. SCR CEO Sergey Valko told reporters that the investments in this unique project for the South Caucasus countries totaled 36 million AMD.  

When replying to an ArmInfo correspondent's question, Valko said that due to the fact that the train was repaired in Armenia, not in abroad, the company was able to reduce its costs 4-fold. He stressed that 27 mln AMD of the total amount was spent on the repair of mounted wheels, spare parts and speed transformers.   

For his part, Head of the SCR Rolling Stock Division Nikolay Lavrenchuk noted that the repair of the next electric train will cost even less due to the opening of a shop for production of mounted wheels in Gyumri (in 2015). "Our specialists have been repairing the train for 4 months, though 1 month would be enough.  But we needed time to train the staff to apply the relevant advanced technologies," he stressed.  

The ceremony was attended by Armenian Minister of Transport, Communication and IT Vahan Martirosyan, Vice Speaker of Armenian Parliament Eduard Sharmazanov, Russia's Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Armenia Ivan Volynkin. "Today is a remarkable day in the history of the SCR. The investments in the company have proved to be efficient. Today it has been demonstrated once again that together we are moving in the right direction: Armenian-Russian allied relations are developing not only in the political or economic, but also transport dimensions," Sharmazanov said.

Following the ceremony, the employees of the Yerevan depot were awarded with medals and money prizes. 

All the electric trains under repair are passenger trains and serve the SCR traffic en route Gyumri, Ararat, Arax and Yeraskh. 

SCR CJSC is the 100% subsidiary of Russian Railways OJSC and the concessional manager of Armenian Railways under the 13 Feb 2008 agreement, which was signed for 30 years but can be extended for 10 more years.