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17 Jun 2016

Gomel-Minsk regular electric railway route opened

Gomel-Minsk regular electric railway route openedGOMEL, 17 June (BelTA) – Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko took part in a ceremony to open the Gomel-Minsk-Gomel regular electric railway route in Gomel on 17 June, BelTA informs.

The ceremony was attended by workers and veterans of Belarusian Railways, students of transport educational institutions of Gomel. Head of Belarusian Railways Vladimir Morozov asked the President’s permission to open a regular railway route in this direction. Alexander Lukashenko gave a corresponding permission and the first cargo train on electric traction departed from the Gomel railway station.

Gomel-Minsk regular electric railway route openedThe head of state was briefed on the progress in the electrification of the Osipovichi-Gomel railway section and on the final stage of the Minsk-Gomel railway electrification project. The President was shown a new Stadler-made rolling stock on electric traction and a BCG-2 electric locomotive made in China.

The Minsk-Gomel railway section was electrified in stages. The first stage to electrify the Minsk-Osipovichi railway section was completed before 1983, the Osipovichi-Zhlobin section – in September 2013, the Zhlobin- Gomel section – in December 2015. New technical solutions were used in the process of electrification; the substitution of imported materials, works, and services by local ones was a priority. Besides, a lot was done to modernize the track maintenance infrastructure, signaling and communication devices. As a result, the travel time of passenger trains was reduced by 1 hour 12 minutes, of cargo trains by 35 minutes.

Gomel-Minsk regular electric railway route openedAs of 1 January 2016, the length of track in use totaled 5,490.9km in Belarus. Electrified tracks accounted for 20.5% of the total (1,128.3km).

Apart from that, an investment project to electrify the Molodechno-Gudogai- the state border railway section of 84km was launched in September 2015. It is expected that the project will be completed in 2017. Plans have been made to electrify the Zhlobin-Kalinkovichi-Barbarov railway section by 2020.

Railways electrification cuts maintenance costs and fuel consumption by 21.3%, increases the technical and travel speed of trains by 15-25%, reduces air and noise pollution.

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