PESA will deliver 62 EMUs to Romanian Railways

On 30 January 2024, a contract for 62 regional EMUs (RE-R) was signed between Autoritatea pentru Reformă Feroviară (ARF, Railway Reform Authority) and PESA  Bydgoszcz. The total value of the contract is 3,038,000,000 RON without VAT (about 610.5 million EUR) and includes maintenance for a period of 15 years, with the possibility to extend it for another 15 years.

The contract is divided into three lots:
- Lot 1 - 20 EMUs (worth 980,000,000 RON) for the Bucharest N - Ploiești S - Adjud, Iași - Pașcani - Suceava, Bacău - Pașcani routes,
- Lot 2 - 23 EMUs (1,127,000,000 RON) for the Brașov - Gheorgheni, Arad - Timișoara - Caransebeș, Huedin - Cluj - Bistrița routes,
- Lot 3 - 19 EMUs (931,000,000 RON) for the Bucharest N - Ploiești V - Brașov, Bucharest N - Roșiori, Bucharest N - Bucharest Obor/Fundulea, Constanța - Fetești routes.

The financing of the project will be provided by European funds through the Modernization Fund, and the co-financing from the state budget. The first EMU is to be delivered within 24 months from the signing of the contract, and the delivery of the entire batch within 36 months.

The three-car units will provide 224 seats, air condition, wi-fi connection, space for placing refreshments vending machine, ticket vending machine and/or device for validating travel documents, spaces for large luggages, and for passengers with reduced mobility, and will be equipped with OBU ETCS Level 2, as well as the national PZB 90 ATP.

The units will be assigned to the operators that have concluded public service contracts for rail passenger transport in the period December 2022 - December 2032. This was recently approved by the ARF and announced now that the units will be distributed as follows:

- Regio Călători - 6 RE-R: 2 RE-R on the route Bucharest N. - Ploiești V. - Brașov, 1 RE-R on the route Bucharest Nord - Adjud, 1 RE-R on the route Arad - Timișoara N. - Caransebeș, 2 RE-R on the route Iasi - Pașcani - Suceava;

- Transferoviar - 7 RE-R, distributed as follows: 1 RE-R on the route Bucharest Nord - Adjud, 5 RE-R on the route Bucharest N. - Roșiori N., 1 RE-R on the route Arad - Timișoara N. - Caransebeș;

- Interregional Călători - 8 RE-R, distributed as follows: 2 RE-R on the route Bucharest Nord - Adjud, 1 RE-R on the route Arad - Timișoara N. - Caransebeș, 5 RE-R on the route Huedin - Cluj Napoca - Bistrița N. ;

- Astra Trans Carpathic - 4 RE-R, distributed as follows: 1 RE-R on the route Bucharest N. - Ploiești V. - Brașov, 1 RE-R on the route Bucharest North - Adjud, 1 RE-R on the route Bucharest North - Fundulea, 1 RE-R on the route Arad - Timișoara N. - Caransebeș;

- Softrans - 3 RE-R, distributed as follows: 1 RE-R on the route Bucharest N. - Ploiești V. - Brașov, 1 RE-R on the route Bucharest North - Adjud, 1 RE-R on the route Bucharest North - Fundulea;

- CFR Călători - 34 RE-R, distributed as follows: 2 RE-R on the route Bucharest N. - Ploiești V. - Brașov, 6 RE-R on the route Brașov - Gheorgheni, 3 RE-R on the route Bucharest North - Adjud, 1 RE -R on the Bucharest North - Fundulea route.

The ARF is thus approaching the conclusion of most of the tenders for the procurement of new vehicles that have been tendered so far, which have been gradually tendered since 2019, many of which faced various delays. Tender procedure for RE-R units is an example, as the first one was announced in April 2019, then for 40 units.

The furthest away is the contract for 37 interregional units (IR-RE1), which will be delivered by Alstom (Coradia Stream), and the first two are already undergoing tests, one in Romania and one at VUZ Velim test base.

The second batch of inter-regional units (IR-RE2) will be delivered by PESA, the contract for 20 Type Regio160 sets with an option for another nine was concluded on 19 December 2023.

Contract for electric locomotives was signed just day before the contract for RE-R, on 29 January 2024. In addition, ARF is conducting a tender for the supply of 12 hydrogen units, which, despite several attempts, has not yet been successful.

This entire project is co-financed by the European Union, various support programs using European funds will be applied to the gradually delivered series of vehicles.