Interest in Russian project to launch Talgo trains via Belarus

– The Russian project to offer a railway transportation service using Talgo trains via Belarus is interesting for Belarusian Railways. The information was released by Belarusian Railways Head Vladimir Morozov at the Transport and Logistics expo on 8 October when asked by BelTA whether relevant preparations are in progress in Belarus.

According to the source, the project that will connect Moscow and Western Europe is interesting for Belarusian Railways primarily in view of the possibility of reducing the workload of the Brest station, which unfortunately operates at its capacity. A Belarusian-Russian working group has been set up to take care of the technical aspects of the project’s implementation, including the design of the mechanisms for switchover from the wide railway track to the narrow track. The official pointed out that the project will not be cheap.

In summer 2013 managers of Belarusian Railways and OAO Russian Railways met in Minsk to discuss prospects of developing passenger transportation. The Russian side informed Belarusian Railways about plans to commission trains made by the company Talgo for the Moscow-Berlin service and praised the aid of Belarusian Railways in implementing projects to launch international train services for the Moscow-Nice and Moscow-Paris routes. Participants of the meeting also discussed the progress in the project to build the Talgo Company device at the railway station Brest to automatically switch trains from the 1520mm track to the 1435mm track. The switchover device is being designed and built right now.

According to Belarusian Railways, as many as 40 pairs of international trains transport passengers between Belarus and Russia, including 24 pairs formed by Belarusian Railways. In 2012 as many as 4,151,135 passengers were transported between Belarus and Russia, 4% up from 2011. Five pairs of international trains cross Belarus to deliver passengers from Russia to Western Europe along the routes Moscow-Warsaw, Moscow-Nice, Moscow-Prague, Moscow-Paris, and Saratov-Berlin.