Sea Port of Saint-Petersburg (part of UCL Holding), Russia, unloaded 2 locomotives and 11 passenger coaches of Spanish high-speed train Talgo, after which they were successfully delivered to the point of destination in Uzbekistan, Central Asia.
The cargo arrived at the end of February from Bilbao via Antwerp by Finnlines’ MS Finnsea ro-ro carrier. For unloading the shipment with total weight of over 300 tons, the port employed quay cranes and reach stackers. The train was mounted on the rail tracks, prepared for transportation and moved by Russian Railways locomotive out of the port. According to Russian Railways, the train left Novy Port railway station in Saint-Petersburg on February, 28th and arrived at Urtaaul station in Uzbekistan on March, 5th. The transit time was 6 days.
For this transportation project, the Russian Research Institute of Railway Transport has developed an individual technical instruction. According to this instruction, the Talgo train (11 passenger coaches and 2 locomotives at the head and at the end) was moved by another locomotive and accompanied by 10 motor coaches and 4 more passenger coaches. The total length of the train was over 700m.
“This is already the third Spanish train for Uzbekistan handled by our port. The previous two we moved in 2011, – reminded the management of JSC “Sea Port of Saint-Petersburg”. – Handling of project cargo is one of our priorities.” In April 2017, the port expects another similar shipment of Talgo 250 train set.
A high-speed rail service between Uzbekistan’s capital, Tashkent, and one of its most important cities, Samarkand, was launched in 2011, following significant investments in the country’s infrastructure. Up to now it is the only high-speed railway service in the region of Central Asia. It is operated by Uzbekistan Railways. The 345km journey can be covered in only 2 hours instead of the 3.5 hours it takes using conventional trains. Currently two 9-car trains are employed in the service. With the additional two 11-car trains, the service will be extended approximately 300km to the south, from Qarshi to Bukhara.