First homologation for seven countries – along the China-Europe Land-Sea Express Route
On 11th September 2019 (local time) in the Hungarian capital city Budapest, CRRC Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. (CRRC ZELC) and Rail Cargo Hungaria (RCH) signed an order of locomotives. This marks an important step for High-Quality Chinese locomotives, serving the freight railway transportation of Hungary and other Central and Eastern European countries.
The contract consists of two locomotive types– a mainline electric locomotive and a shunting locomotive, which were jointly developed by CRRC ZELC and the ÖBB (Parent company of Rail Cargo Hungaria).
The mainline electric locomotive is designed with a speed of 140km/h, 4 axles, a wheel power of 5600kW, a dual-current power supply and a “Super Last Mile” function of short-term traction with its own auxiliary power in grid-free area. It can be used as a shunting locomotive in non-electrified railways such as stations, ports and freight yards, which can help reduce the operation of small diesel shunting locomotives, the participation of additional personnel and improve the economics of rail transit. The green lithium battery power package can avoid fuel waste and air pollution.
The hybrid shunting locomotive is designed with a speed of 100 km/h, 4 axles and a peripheral power of 850 kW. It adopts the “overhead net + lithium battery” electric-hybrid drive mode, to reach zero pollution and low noise compared with the traditional diesel shunting locomotives and outstanding advantages of high efficiency.
Mr. Zhe CHEN, senior engineer of the CRRC ZELC R&D Center told the reporters:
“The Mainline Electric Locomotives will be homologated for seven countries including Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, and Greece. The locomotives will serve from the Greek port city of Piraeus on the China-Europe Land-Sea Express Line. This line will run through Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary and other countries, and represents an important part of the “One Belt, One Road” Initiative. The Shunting Locomotives are expected to comply with the Hungarian homologation and will be applied for logistics supplies on railway construction sites as the Rail Cargo Terminal – BILK in Budapest, as well as for the mainline logistics services.”
Mr. Hongtao LIAO, Vice General Manager of CRRC and Chairman of CRRC ZELC, states that this project will be the first to realize the homologation for seven countries of Chinese rail transportation products on Europe’s important cargo channels.
Mr. Qinghe ZHOU, Chairman of CRRC ZELC, pointed out that CRRC ZELC upholds its business ethics of providing differentiated products and services, and adheres to its initial plan of sharing the differentiated goods. Mr. ZHOU also highlighted CRRC ZELC’s aim at gaining a foothold in the development of the downstream supply chain. Through this project, CRRC plans to actively participate in the European railway construction and takes great effort in the provision of safe, environment-friendly and fully life-cycled solution of railway transportation systems to accelerate the connectivity within European countries. CRRC ZELC strives for deeper cooperation and development with mutual benefits to enhance the construction of the “One Belt, One Road” Initiative.
(reported by Chao LIANG)
