More RA3 DMUs For Sakhalin

On 22 September 2020 TMH announced that it will build three Class RA3 DMUs for RZD subsidiary Passazhirskaya kompaniya „Sakhalin“ (PKS, the Passenger company „Sakhalin“). By the end of October 2020, PKS will receive two three-car and one two-car trains, achieving a total of six units. The trains, approximately since April 2020 named Orlan (Sea eagle), will be built at Metrovagonmash (MVM) of Mytishchi.

To date, the company has delivered 45 Class RA3 DMUs in total. In February 2019 MVM presented the first prototype, RA3-001. The first order was placed by TsPPK, this announced on 5 December 2018, and involved 23 trains (17 two-car and six three-car units), designated RA3-001 to 023 and financed and owned by Sberbank Leasing. These, leased by the latter to TsPPK, were delivered between August and November 2019 (two-car DMUs) and by May 2020 (three-car DMUs).

The first delivery took place, however, for Passazhirskaya kompaniya „Sakhalin“ which in April 2019 ordered three two-car RA3s for local services. These were despatched from the MVM works on 26 July, designated RA3-024 to 026. The 2020-built Orlan for PKS will be RA3-044 and 045 (the three-car version) and RA3-046 (the two-car version).

The next order for RA3s came from RZD in April 2019. This was for eight two-car trains (initially, the intention was for only seven units), designated RA3-027 to 034, for use in the Nizhny Novgorod and Krasnodar regions. They were delivered by December 2019.

Meantime, construction continues at Metrovagonmash and in 2020 nine Orlans, RA3-035 to 043, were built. They are a mix of two-car (RA3-037, 039 to 043) and three-car DMUs (RA3-035, 036 and 038). Subsequently, RA3-044 was built for Moskovskaya zheleznaya doroga (MZhD, Moskva railway) and RA3-047 for Severnaya zheleznaya doroga (SZhD, Northern railway), both being RZD subsidiaries.