Railway buffs next week would have the opportunity to view an electric locomotive recently procured by the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) when it is unveiled in Pingtung County, the state-run agency said yesterday.
The TRA said it would display one of 68 E500 electric locomotives at its Chaozhou Rolling Stock Depot in the county on Saturday, and people would have an opportunity to take photographs.
The 68 locomotives, manufactured by Japan’s Toshiba Infrastructure Systems & Solutions Corp, were delivered on Sept. 17 and are expected to begin commercial operations as Juguang and Ziqiang express trains in April next year, the agency said.
Photo courtesy of the Taiwan Railways Administration
The procurement of the locomotives is part of the TRA’s NT$100 billion (US$3.09 billion) investment plan, which focuses mainly on the purchase of approximately 1,300 new rolling-stock units from 2015 to next year.
Under the plan, TRA had ordered 102 locomotives — 68 electric E500s from Toshiba and 34 diesel-electric R200s from Stadler Rail of Switzerland.
The Stadler trains, which would be used for freight and military purposes, were unveiled in July and are likely to start operations by the end of this year, the TRA said.
When the Stadler contract was signed in 2019, the Swiss manufacturer said it was its first major tender for rolling stock in the Asia-Pacific region from its base in Europe.
“The locomotives will be used in demanding mountainous topography — similar to that of Switzerland — and in extreme climatic conditions,” then-Stadler CEO Thomas Ahlburg was quoted as saying in a news release at the time.
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