The first new train purchased by Romania in 20 years, Alstom’s Coradia Stream electric frame, which is currently undergoing trials in Feurei, will not travel with passengers before the middle of the year, Gabriel Stanciu, Alstom’s CEO for Romania, Bulgaria and Moldova, estimated on Monday, quoted Agerpres.

When asked by journalists at what stage are the tests of the new electric frame of the batch of 37 trains that will be manufactured and delivered by Alstom, Gabriel Stanciu answered: “And I will give the answer that I like: we will see the train after the tests are finished, and the tests will be finished after how everything will be checked.”

“It’s not really under our control. It is interesting, however, to touch a little on the issue of testing and homologation. We are used to in Romania that everything is done in a hurry, in the last hundred meters and somehow it raises questions in this area of ​​authorization, homologation and commissioning. Everything has changed. Type approval and sale are procedures clearly defined by European law, which, according to the calendar, last 42 months for a new vehicle, 35 months for a variant and 27 months for a minor modification. I am somehow quoting from memory, but I can provide you with public documents from which you can see exactly this calendar,” said the head of Alstom Romania.

To shorten these procedures, multiple test units are used, he said.

“How this duration can be reduced: Basically, you use more units to test. In our case, we use three trains for the trains. One is in the Czech Republic, in Velina, on the track – at first we wanted to deliver it to Feurei, but Feurei does not have all the necessary facilities for what we need – the other was supposed to come to the Romanian railway. of the network and do some endurance tests and tests on certain critical sections of the network where there is a big gradient, where there are some very tight turns, etc. and the third unit was supposed to come with the whole package of approvals to the ARF, according to the contract. We had to modify this program because there were, let’s say, “some difficulties”, and I don’t want to go into details – don’t ask me, I won’t give anything away, because I will again create artificial animosity and antipathy, although it is not – and we had to change the first train to go to Velín, Czech Republic for circuit tests, the second one is now completed and we are doing part of the tests in Feura and on the network, and the third one is in Germany, on the Deutsche Bahn network, because there we are doing tests on technical compatibility standards – STI in Romanian, TSI in English,” explained Stancu.

This was reported after the contract signing ceremony for the purchase of 16 new electric locomotives.

He noted that the program envisages completing the last tests in June 2024.

“This is a program from that, on a critical path. The critical path involves the completion of final tests sometime in June. The complete package will be transferred to other relevant authorities, for example ASFR in Romania, so that finally the type and approval for sale are ready, and the tests are completed, we have absolutely all the documents at hand. You should know that this is a very time consuming program, which I don’t think anyone anticipated. As far as I know, we are obviously the first to open the way again and overcome all difficulties. Those who are following us already have their procedures completed and we are doing our best to get through as quickly as possible. I don’t think it could have been done any better, honestly, given all the other elements. The important thing is that it’s a modern train, a very modern aluminum platform, an interesting thing, considering if you look a little bit at the condition of the old cars, that is corrosion and other elements that attack the body, and the degree of comfort is increased, after which of course we could it can be improved if we make some effort and realize that it is time to properly test what is on the train so that we can make the desired adaptations for mass production. (…) I was a bit shocked by the testing, homologation, marketing and type approval procedures, because I didn’t know it was so complicated. I really didn’t know either, I underestimated,” said the CEO of Alstom in Romania, Bulgaria and the Republic of Moldova.

On December 4, the first Alstom Coradia Stream electric train of 37 long-distance interregional electric frames ordered by the Railway Reform Authority (ARF) arrived at the North Station, which will undergo static and dynamic tests, as this train model no longer runs in Romania.

After the completion of these stages, the first trains will run on the routes Bucharest – Brasov and Bucharest – Constanta.