News

DRAGON debuts on tracks

During a cere­mony held at War­szawa Wschod­nia rail­way sta­tion on June 9, 2016 , Newag S.A. offi­cially han­ded over to Fre­igh­tli­ner PL the first out of five DRAGON loco­mo­ti­ves. These are cutting-edge, 6-axle elec­tric loco­mo­ti­ves equ­ip­ped with an addi­tio­nal die­sel engine for ope­ra­tions on non-electrified end lines, and at sidings. What is cru­cial, these loco­mo­ti­ves were fully desi­gned and manu­fac­tu­red in Poland. The con­tract was signed  in Janu­ary 2015. The trans­ac­tion is finan­ced by ING Lease (Poland).

During the offi­cial cere­mony, the first DRAGON loco­mo­tive was chri­ste­ned with the name of Ernest Mali­now­ski – an out­stan­ding Polish rail­way engi­neer, the con­struc­tor of the Cen­tral Trans-Andean Rail­way in Peru. The figure of Mali­now­ski is the best proof that Poland may be the source of  cutting-edge tech­no­logy. In this respect, DRAGON loco­mo­ti­ves resem­ble Ernest Mali­now­ski. It is the pro­duct  of Polish engi­ne­ering solu­tions which is cha­rac­te­ri­sed by the highest para­me­ters  of power, effi­ciency, ergo­no­mics and reliability.

Kon­stan­tin Sko­rik, Pre­si­dent of the Board, Fre­igh­tli­ner PL:

Inve­sting in modern rol­ling stock is the only chance to repair the image of rail­way servi­ces, which are often asso­cia­ted with  almost ancient, fifty-year old rol­ling stock, unpre­dic­ta­bi­lity and low stan­dard servi­ces. From the very begin­ning of its activities, Freightliner has been imple­men­ting a stra­tegy of maxi­mum effi­ciency  based on new and relia­ble loco­mo­ti­ves and rail cars. Our loco­mo­ti­ves are on ave­rage eight years old. Howe­ver, we believe that  if you are not moving for­ward, your are going  bac­kward. The­re­fore, we have deci­ded to extend our fleet with DRAGONS — new, six-axle  elec­tric loco­mo­ti­ves , which have an addi­tio­nal die­sel engine. Manu­fac­tu­ring rol­ling stock may become Polish intel­li­gent spe­cialty but only if Polish rail­way ope­ra­tors buy Polish rol­ling stock. This is why we are  very proud that we have orde­red loco­mo­ti­ves desi­gned and manu­fac­tu­red in Poland, thus cre­ating here spe­cia­list know-how and workplaces.

Józef Micha­lik, Deputy Pre­si­dent of the Board, Newag S.A.:

I am very proud and hono­ured today to be able to offi­cially hand over to the mana­ge­ment of  Fre­igh­tli­ner Pol­ska the first out of three  alre­ady deli­ve­red Dra­gon E6ACTd six-axle loco­mo­ti­ves. We are convin­ced that  their relia­bi­lity and tech­ni­cal readi­ness (at 99.3 and 99.5 respec­ti­vely ) will signi­fi­can­tly reduce spen­ding on rol­ling stock reserve.

The six-axle loco­mo­tive han­ded over today  is the first of this kind elec­tric loco­mo­tive manu­fac­tu­red in Poland equ­ip­ped with the so-called Dual Power module ena­bling its ope­ra­tion on non-electrified sidings.

Ewa Łuniew­ska, Pre­si­dent of the Board, ING Lease (Polska):

I am happy that ING Lease has con­tri­bu­ted to the deve­lop­ment of the Polish rail­way mar­ket. ING has offe­red inno­va­tive pro­ducts aiming at finan­cing rol­ling stock for years and we have exten­sive expe­rience in this area. This trans­ac­tion, ano­ther one  con­trac­ted with our long-standing part­ners, namely Newag and Fre­igh­tli­ner , per­fec­tly mat­ches our stra­tegy. We focus on buil­ding long-term rela­tion­ships and pro­vide finan­cing adju­sted  to our Clients’ expec­ta­tions. We are able to finance inno­va­tive, uni­que pro­ducts, sup­por­ting the deve­lop­ment of trans­por­ta­tion in Poland. I am convin­ced that we can count on years of fur­ther fru­it­ful collaboration.