Kazakhstan railroads getting 140 passenger wagons in 2013

Kazakhstan’s railroad fleet will get 140 passenger wagons in 2013, Tengrinews.kz reports citing Kazakhstan Minister of Transport and Communications Askar Zhumagaliyev as saying at the briefing in Kazakhstan President’s Central Communications Service. “To further update the railroad fleet we plan to purchase 93 locomotives, 140 passenger and 1,784 freight wagons in 2013. We will also continue works on construction of Beineu-Zhezkazgan and Arkalyk-Shubarkol railroad lines,” Zhumagaliyev said. Besides, the Minister reminded that the plan was to launch passenger trains on Astana-Uralsk and Pavlodar-Karaganda routes starting from January 1, 2013. New standards for railroad stations and passenger trains have been developed this year. They are called to unify approaches to service quality. These standards are now being approved and will be adopted in 2013. According to him, year 2012 has been the most effective for the railroad sector. Construction of 293km Zhetygen-Korgas section and 146km Uzen-Turkmenistan section were completed. Construction of Beineu-Zhezkazgan and Arkalyk-Shubarkol section of the total length of 1,202km has been started. A plant producing Talgo passenger wagons was put into operation with the nominal capacity of 150 wagons per year. A plant producing electric locomotives with the nominal capacity of 100 sections per year was launched as well. According to the Minister, 102 locomotives, 95 passenger and 11,222 freight wagons were purchased in 11 months of 2012. An overhaul was completed in 46 railroad stations. A new high-speed Talgo train was launched on Almaty-Petropavlovsk route. Besides, a similar Talgo train was launched on Astana-Aktobe route on December 14. By Aidana Ussupova