By Muhammed Ali Gurtas
ANKARA (AA) – Turkey will get new high-speed trains from Siemens under a €340 million ($420 million) worth agreement, the German industry giant announced on Friday.
“Turkish State Railways (TCDD) has signed a contract for ten Velaro high-speed trains with Siemens, which submitted the most favorable bid in the tender, ” the company said.
“The contract is worth around €340 million and also includes maintenance, repair and cleaning of the trains for a period of three years, ” it said, noting that the Turkish Velaro fleet will grow to 17 trains with this new contract.
Sabrina Soussan, CEO at the mobility division of Siemens, said the Velaro remains a “benchmark for high-speed trains ” in terms of capacity and comfort.
“In Turkey, the train can fully utilize all its strengths and is already proving this in daily operation, ” Soussan said, adding: “Our flagship is running here with 99-percent availability. ”
The company also noted that the seven Velaro high-speed trains — currently operating in Spain, France, Germany, the U.K., Belgium, Russia, China, Turkey and the Netherlands — had already covered over five million kilometers in passenger service in Turkey since 2015.
In recent years, Turkey has carried out a series of high-speed railway projects, starting with opening of Ankara-Eskisehir line in 2009. In 2011, over 200-kilometer length Ankara-Konya line entered service, followed by Eskisehir-Istanbul line in 2014.
The country is still working on Ankara-Izmir high-speed railway line with 625 km length and around 400-km length Ankara-Sivas line.
