Success by ČKD Vagonka: supply of suburban train units to Lithuania

The customer is Lithuanian Railways, the national rail operator in Lithuania. In doing so ČKD Vagonka has managed to break onto a perspective market.

“The order consists of two EJ 575 double-decker electric units and other related services at a cost of almost 490 million crowns. We are manufacturing the train sets and will be delivering them to the customer in 2008,” said the Managing Director of ČKD Vagonka Tomáš Krsek. The order for Lithuanian Railways also signifies a return to manufacturing and deliveries of alternating 25kV traction units for the Czech rail industry, in this case, in terms of the modern technology developed in the ŠKODA HOLDING a.s. group.

ČKD Vagonka has been manufacturing the modern double-decker units since 2000. These are operated by Czech Railways in the Czech Republic under the name “City Elefant”. Deployment of the above-mentioned train sets into the Czech Railways graphic timetable signified a change in the culture of travelling on suburban transport in Prague (air-conditioning, low-floor boarding areas, disabled access toilets and similar), from December last year these train units have also been in use for transportation in the Ostrava region. Czech Railways currently has 25 sets.

ČKD Vagonka has been part of the ŠKODA HOLDING a.s. group since 2005. Entrance by the new owner and gradual integration of the Ostrava-based subsidiary company into the structure of the transport engineering branch of ŠKODA brought with it the opportunity to use the development and production facilities, increase in technical competence and also new export possibilities. All of this also has an influence in a growth in the number of employees. Whereas in January 2005 ČKD VAGONKA employed 320 people, it currently has 421 employees and with a view to the number of train sets that have been ordered, it will be necessary to increase the number of workers by the end of 2008 to the target level of 550 employees.