Business news

FANIPOL, 16 October (BelTA) – Stadler Minsk is busy making trains for the Minsk metro. The first train will roll off the production line before the end of 2018, Stadler Minsk CEO Philipp Brunner told the media on 16 October, BelTA has learned.

“The train will be put on rails this year and tested at the beginning of the next year. Then it will be ready to carry passengers,” noted Philipp Brunner.

The train will be the first one made entirely of aluminum on the CIS market. “We are ready to give it a 50-year warranty without maintenance, which is interesting for our customers. This metal makes the body frame lighter, which enables the train to consume less energy and lower the load on infrastructure. We have also envisaged an automatic train operation control system of a second level here. The train controls its acceleration and braking, and keeps the right speed,” said Philipp Brunner.

As BelTA reported earlier, Stadler Minsk has won a tender to supply ten trains for the Minsk metro. The first train will be used on Line 2. This will be a modern train with end-to-end walkthrough gangways. It will be tailored to all categories of citizens and equipped with anti-vandal seats, comfortable handrails, and an automatic train control system which secures precise stopping. Such trains will be running on Line 3. The new 17.2km metro line will serve 14 stations. It is designed to connect the southern and northern residential areas of Minsk with the downtown. The construction of the first four stations is currently underway. These are Kovalskaya Sloboda, Vokzalnaya, Yubileinaya Poshchad, and Ploshchad Bogushevicha. The new stations will be equipped with platform screen doors.

Stadler Minsk is a resident company of the FEZ Minsk and makes part of the Swiss Stadler Rail Group. The enterprise manufactures products for broad-gauge railways. The train factory is based in Fanipol.