Comprehensive testing of newly arrived TRAXX 3 MS electric locomotive might take until April next year

Testing of the Alstom TRAXX 3 MS electric locomotive purchased by Romania could last until April next year and will be carried out in accordance with current European legislation, Alstom general manager for Romania, Bulgaria and Moldova Gabriel Stanciu declared on Thursday.

"All the tests related to the technical standards of interoperability, those TSIs, must be completed. As we can see, we are on schedule with the prototype, but a whole series of external factors intervene, related in the first place to the management of Romanian infrastructure, which must provide us with all the data and allow us access to critical areas, so that we can run all the compatibility tests with the Romanian railway network. Then the Romanian Railway Authority, the Romanian Railway Safety Authority step in, alongside other bodies in the categories generically called AsBo, DeBo and so on, to complete all the tests. Our forecast, or as per our current knowledge, is that we will be able to complete the entire process by somewhere in April next year. After that we will be able to register the vehicle and start its commercial operation," declared Gabriel Stanciu.

In his turn, the president of the Railway Reform Authority, Mihai Barbu, said that this is the first of a 16-batch of TRAXX 3 MS electric locomotives purchased, and they will all arrive in Romania by August of next year.

"We want to increase the speed on the railway, we are contracting and purchasing new trains, and we also want all our rolling stock procurement projects to be closely correlated with the rehabilitation of the railway," said Mihai Barbu.

The new electric locomotives mark an important chapter in Romania's passenger rail transport, by increasing the efficiency of the services, reducing pollution and increasing comfort on a series of routes on the electrified public railway network.

These railway vehicles offer a flexible design that uses a robust, modular platform, and are equipped with complex control technology (computer diagnostic/vision, GPS and communication via mobile communications standard), including Alstom's latest generation ERTMS solution.