Public joint-stock company Ukrzaliznytsia is testing TE33€ freight diesel locomotive made by General Electric Corporation (the United States).
“The General Electric’s locomotive is being tested in Ukraine. The tests will last for four months. All its capabilities will be tested”, Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan said at the presentation of the locomotive in Kyiv.
He recalled that by late October Ukrzaliznytsia would draw up a five-year Ukrainian locomotive and wagon modernization plan. Foreign experts will be involved in this work in the second half of October – leading locomotive manufacturers and experts with experience of railways transformation.
“We believe that the locomotive presented by General Electric will be a success. I would like General Electric to be not only the strategic partner of the Olympic Games, but of Ukraine as well. The corporation has all facilities for this. There are enough directions for cooperation: railways, aviation, other spheres where the corporation has proved to be a global leader”, the minister said.
Omelyan said that TE33€ diesel locomotive allowed saving fuel and lubricants and doubling the loading capacity.
The minister did not give an affirmative response to the question what the likelihood to buy the locomotive was. He said that negotiations with all leading manufacturers would be held to determine a strategic partner in production of locomotives in Ukraine. (Interfax/Business World Magazine)
