President reviews new electric railcar
By Nigar Orujova
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has reviewed a newly brought electric railcar on June 3.
The railcars will go between Baku passenger station and Koroglu metro station during the first European Games, and will then be used on the Baku-Khirdalan-Sumgayit railway line. The trains will travel in Baku with an average speed of 63km per hour.
Transport Minister, Ziya Mammadov and Chairman of Azerbaijan Railways, Javid Gurbanov informed the head of state about redevelopment work on Baku-Sumgayit-Baku ring railway.
It was noted that the railway is 91km in length, with its two-line part being 85km and one-line section 4.4 km in length.
The remaining section of the railway will be 1.6 km in length. The Baku-Sumgayit ring railway is divided into two sections.
The first section features a 42 km long Baku-Bilajari-Sumgayıt line, and the second includes a 49 km long Baku-Zabrat-Sumgayıt line. Reconstruction work has already been completed on the 55 km long section of the railway.
The head of state was informed of the project of the Heydar Aliyev International Airport railway line. The railway line, which will be 25km in length, will contribute to easing off traffic congestion in the city.
President Aliyev reviewed the electric railcar. Then, the president drove the railcar.
KISS double-decker electric railcar was produced at Stadler Minsk factory of Stadler Rail Group company.
The train has 396 seats, including 84 business class seats, and has a total capacity of 919 passengers.
The railway line is expected to carry 30,000-35,000 passengers on a daily basis.
Azerbaijan Railways and Switzerland’s Stadler Rail Group signed a contract on the purchase of five KISS double-decker trains at the 14th International Transport, Transit and Logistics Exhibition, TransCaspian 2015 in Baku this May.
The contract is worth about 60-70 million euros, which are to be paid to Stadler Rail Group within 20 years with the help of revenues generated from passenger transportation.
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Nigar Orujova is AzerNews’s staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @o_nigar
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