MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th August, 2020) Egyptian National Railways, the African country's state railroad company, has begun using carriages manufactured by the Tver Carriage Works, the Russian firm said in a press release on Thursday.
"Trains using the carriages are running daily on the following lines: Cairo - Alexandria, Cairo - Asyut, Cairo - Sohag," the producer, whose parent company is the Russian railroad giant Transmashholding, said.
The third-class carriages have 88 seats and meet all safety and comfort standards. The carriages have a predicted lifespan of 40 years in Egypt's continental and coastal climate, the manufacturer said.
The first batch of carriages, numbering 33 in total, arrived in the North African country this past July and passed all the required tests.
A further 175 carriages are expected to arrive by the end of the year, and the manufacturer plans to provide a total of 1,300 carriages, comprised of five different variants, as part of a deal worth more than�one billion Euros ($1.2 billion), which was signed in 2018.
The carriages are being produced at the Tver works and the Dunakeszi facility in Hungary, which has been acquired by Transmashholding, Russia's largest producer of rolling stock for railroads and suburban transport.
