Spanish company Talgo has won a maintenance contract for Talgo 250 high-speed trains in Uzbekistan.
The contract, awarded by Uzbekistan Railways (Oʻzbekiston Temir Yoʻllari – UTY), is worth almost EUR 80 million and will run for ten years to provide maintenance for the six Talgo 250 trains.
This is the largest maintenance contract won by Talgo in Uzbekistan, after more than 15 years of successive agreements that have consolidated the presence of Spanish high-speed rail technology in Central Asia. Talgo 250 high-speed trains operate in Uzbekistan at a maximum commercial speed of 230 km/h, although they are designed to reach 275 km/h.
The Uzbekistan Railways company purchased the first two Talgo 250 trains with nine cars each in 2009, which entered service in 2011. Subsequently, in 2011, a second contract was signed for two more 11-car units, which have been operational since 2017. In 2019, UTY expanded its fleet with two more Talgo 250 trains, each with 11 cars, which began operating in 2021, as well as four additional cars to bring the number of cars on the two trains from the first contract to 11.
The Talgo 250 trains in Uzbekistan also operate in Spain as the 130 and 730 series, under the commercial name Alvia, for Renfe. They feature natural tilting technology, which allows for increased speed on curves due to the passive tilting of the bogies. Unlike the Spanish models, there is no need to change the gauge in Uzbekistan, as the trains run exclusively on the 1,520 mm wide gauge.
To expand its fleet of high-speed trains, the railway company signed a contract with Hyundai Rotem in June 2024 for the delivery of six high-speed trains with seven cars each, capable of traveling at 250 km/h. The contract is worth 195.7 million USD, and the purchase was made based on a presidential decision in 2024.
On December 29, the Uzbekistan railway company inaugurated a new technical maintenance facility for the high-speed trains delivered by Hyundai Rotem. The facility is equipped with modern equipment, including 25 kV indoor electrified lines, an extensive multi-level infrastructure, and efficient real-time traffic control systems.
This facility is part of the high-speed train maintenance center that has been operating since 2018, servicing Afrosiyob trains, the name given to Talgo 250 high-speed trains in Uzbekistan. They mainly serve the Tashkent–Samarkand–Bukhara–Karshi route. In Uzbekistan, “Afrosiyob” is synonymous with modern and fast rail transport, similar to AVE in Spain or TGV in France.
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