PITTSBURGH — Wabtec has announced a $600 million agreement to provide 150 battery-electric switch engines using its FLXdrive technology for Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, Kazakhstan’s national railway company. The memorandum of understanding also includes modernization work to convert KTZ’s mainline locomotive fleet with its NextFuel liquid natural gas system.
The announcement coincides with the InnoTrans international rail trade fair now in progress in Berlin.
Wabtec says the switching locomotives will be 100% battery powered with more than 1.5 megawatt hours of energy, allowing KTZ to reduce fuel costs by approximately $75,000 per locomotive per year, reduce scheduled maintenance by up to 97%, and avoid costly yard electrification investments.
The NextFuel kits will convert diesel locomotives, more than doubling their range from 1,300 kilometers (more than 800 miles) to 3,000 km (more than 1,860 miles) and decreasing fuel costs by as much as 26%. The companies will also collaborate on testing digital products, beginning with the Trip Optimizer system.
The FLXdrive locomotives will be built and the LNG conversions will be performed at the LKZ (Lokomotive Kurasyru Zauyty) facility in Nur Sultan, Kazakhstan, with production beginning in 2024.
where is the LNG coming from ?? Russia ??
Being woke isn’t cheap, apparently.
I wonder if their government will tell them they can only charge the batteries after 9 PM? Just think of all the fossil fuel that will have to be burned to provide the power to charge the batteries!
Are those numbers right? $600M for 150 switchers?