Bombardier signs Russian rail deal

Bombardier Transportation and Transmashholding, a Russian rail technology manufacturer, recently signed an agreement creating two joint ventures.

The first will see the formation of an engineering joint venture to develop advanced propulsion technology and technical solutions for railway equipment. The second is a production joint venture to manufacture a family of traction converters based on Bombardier’s MITRAC propulsion technology.

The engineering centre will be located in Moscow and serve customers from Russia and abroad. The centre is expected to be operational in Autumn 2007. Both companies will use the centre to offer their capabilities in the development of rolling stock and related equipment.

The manufacturing joint venture will produce the first traction converter family at Transmashholding’s plant in the city of Novocherkassk. In its initial phase, the joint venture will manufacture advanced converters required for a new generation of locomotives with asynchronous propulsion. The propulsion equipment will be used on Russian Railways’ locomotives and the locomotives of customers outside of Russia.

Both engineering and production joint ventures will be owned equally by Bombardier Transportation and Transmashholding. The two partners will together invest a total of €12.5m in the operations.