State Transport Leasing Company and United Wagon Company sign a supply agreement for 25,000 freight cars
UWC, a railway holding, will supply the STLC with 20,000 gondola cars with unloading hatches by the end of 2022 and 5,000 hopper cars for transporting grain and grain mill products by the end of 2020.
The freight cars are equipped with a bogie with a 25 t axle load and have improved technical and economic performance compared to that of standard models mounted on 23.5 t axle load bogies.
The economic efficiency for railcar and infrastructure owners derived from operating rolling stock with a large loading capacity and can be seen in the savings on operating costs and the income from transporting additional volumes of freight. For example, the overhaul mileage of freight cars manufactured at UWC’s Tikhvin plants is up to 1 million km (or eight years), three times as long as that of freight cars of previous generations. Guaranteed inspection-free mileage stands at 6,000 km (compared with 2,300 km for standard models).
According to Assessment of effects of operating innovative cars for the railway transportation market in Russia by INFOLine, the cumulative benefit to Russia’s GDP from operating rolling stock with an increased loading capacity exceeded RUB 130 billion for the period from 2013 to 2018, and the total additional export volume of coal transported in heavy freight trains alone amounted to 29 million tonnes for the five-year period.
Importantly, State Transport Leasing Company earlier announced its intention to launch a programme for the rental and operating lease of new generation cars, including gondola cars, hopper cars, box cars, and container flat cars. STLC will offer comfortable and mutually beneficial lease terms to each lessee with its cars handed over to customers on financial leases for a term of up to 15 years and operating leases for one year or a longer period.
