Kazakhstan has outlined plans to increase the rolling stock of KTZ

The Prime Minister of Kazakhstan announced plans to supply locomotives, passenger cars and wagons to replenish the fleet of the national operator Kazakhstan Railways (KTZ) and its subsidiaries. Railway Supply magazine writes about this, citing IRJ.

Scheduled deliveries include 187 diesel locomotives in 2023-2026, including locomotives made by Wabtec and others supplied by unspecified Russian manufacturers. Wabtec units will be assembled at the Lokomotiv Kurastyru Zauyty (LKZ) plant in Kazakhstan. 70 of these locomotives are expected in the first half of 2023.

In September 2022, KTZ signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Wabtec for approximately US$600 million for the supply of 150 FLXdrive battery electric shunting locomotives and upgrade work to convert its existing mainline diesel fleet to liquefied natural gas (LNG).

The second planned order is 245 electric locomotives, which Alstom will deliver in 2023-2029. These locomotives are to be purchased under a long-term contract signed by Alstom and KTZ, according to which the manufacturer was to supply a total of 250 KZ8A freight locomotives and 119 KZ4AT mainline passenger locomotives.

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The third planned order is for Stadler to produce 537 passenger cars by 2029. In mid-December 2022, KTZ signed three long-term contracts with Stadler, including a 20-year full maintenance contract. One of the contracts with Stadler also includes the acquisition of the Tulpar plant in Astana. The level of localization of production of these cars is planned at the level of 35%.

The fourth order is 307 passenger cars, which will be built by Russian manufacturers in 2023–2024. As in the case of Russia’s participation in the planned orders for the KTZ diesel locomotive fleet, specific manufacturers are not indicated.

The fifth and final order concerns wagons and is for 1,500 gondola wagons and 601 container flatcars, which are expected to arrive during 2023. The gondola cars will be produced by one of KTZ’s subsidiaries, the Kazakhstan Carriage Building Company, for another subsidiary, Kaztemirtrans, which owns the largest fleet of cars in Kazakhstan. The 601 container wagon is to be delivered by Ziksto and destined for KTZ’s other subsidiary, the intermodal operator KTZ Express.

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