During today’s visit of PM Ewa Kopacz in Ukraine, “ Memorandum of Cooperation in mechanical engineering in train industry, research, design and experiment, trials, engineering and consulting in rail industry” was signed in the presence of Deputy Ministers for Economy of Ukraine and Poland: Roman Kaczura and Andrzej Dycha, respectively as well as in the presence of Maksym Blanko, CEO of Ukrainian Railways (Ukrzaliznytsia).
The memorandum was signed by Rostyslav Diomin – Technological Policy Department at Ukrzaliznytsia, Zbigniew Konieczek – President of the Board of Directors at NEWAG S.A. and Adrian Furgalski – Deputy President of the Board of TOR Economic Advisors’ Team. It offers an opportunity to prepare a two-three year programme of modernising diesel locomotives.
“As much as 80% of all goods are transported by rail in Ukraine, which means that without modernising locomotives cargo transport may fail,” said Adrian Furgalski, Deputy President of the Board of TOR Economic Advisors’ Team. “The Memorandum may initiate an investment process which is of key importance for the Ukrainian transportation system because as many as 150 –200 diesel locomotives may be subject to overhaul,” he added.
So far, NEWAG S.A. has implemented its technology of modernising wide-gauge locomotives for PKP LHS and KOLPREM.
“We have long-term experience in modernising diesel locomotives. We have maintained the leading position in this segment in the last two years,” said Zbigniew Konieczek, President of the Board of NEWAG S.A. “In 2014, we modernised 31 locomotives, maintaining 100% of the market share in Poland.”