posted on 25th Sep 2024 07:46
Talgo and PESA have entered into an agreement to start exploring the possibilities to collaborate in the development of the new high speed and very high-speed rail network in Poland. The two companies signed on 24 September a MoU by Talgo President Carlos Palacio and PESA CEO Krzysztof Zdziarski. The MoU covers the exploratory works to prepare later agreements and along three main business lines:
- the very high-speed rolling stock procurement process to be called in Poland in 2025,
- other future high-speed projects yet to be defined,
- and finally, and within even broader terms, the collaboration for new, additional opportunities.
Under current plans unveiled last year by the government of Poland, the country will construct a new high-speed rail line connecting some of its biggest cities, including Warsaw, Łódź and Wrocław, the first of a range of around 2,000 km of new passenger dedicated routes to be constructed in the following years and as part of the Centralny Port Komunikacyjny (CPK) project.
Talgo President Carlos Palacio stated: "It is for us a pleasure to enter into a preliminary collaboration with PESA, a conventional rail vehicle specialist with a strong presence in Poland and neighbouring countries and a deep and precious knowledge of the Polish market. We look forward to demonstrating the capabilities of our very high-speed platform Talgo Avril, already under service in Spain, and the modularity and interoperability of Intercity 230, our range of long-distance trains to be deployed soon in Denmark and Germany and that we are showcasing here at InnoTrans”.
Krzysztof Zdziarski, PESA President and CEO, said: "Pesa has been working on the development of the HS project for several years. From the beginning, we assumed that we would implement this project with a technology partner. The potential of Talgo and PESA complement each other, and I am convinced that together we will offer a vehicle that will perfectly fit the needs of carriers on the Polish market and in the entire Three Seas region.”
PESA stated that talks on cooperation with Talgo have been ongoing for over two years, the terms of the agreement were negotiated, but above all, technical teams worked to prepare the assumptions of the concept of a base vehicle and partners’ responsibilities for tasks within the project, so the consortium is already prepared to present an offer of HS vehicles for the Polish market and neighboring countries.