Low-floor, air-conditioned with a WiFi– access – these are the new IMPULS 36WEa trains which have been purchased jointly by four provinces, namely Małopolska, Podkarpacie, Sląsk and Świętokrzyskie Province. On Wednesday, September 3, 2014, they were shown for the first time at the Krynica railway station. The presented trains will start servicing their routes as early as this autumn.
The four IMPULS 36WEa trains, presented during the Economic Forum, constitute only some of the vehicles purchased by the Provinces of Małopolska, Podkarpacie, Śląskie and Świętokrzyskie with the final number amounting to 19 trains. Małopolska, Świętokrzyskie and Śląsk have purchased six vehicles each and Podkarpackie Province has purchased one.
These trains have been purchased thanks to the co-financing from the Infrastructure and Environment Programme, they must service intraregional routes and they cannot operate on routes within individual provinces, said Marek Sowa, Marshal of Małopolska. Following the formal acceptance procedure, the trains will be handed over to be operated by Przewozy Regionalne company. We expect to be able to finalise this by the end of the month, he added.
The total gross value of the order amounted to PLN 313.71 million (the EU co-funding amounted to 70% of the eligible costs).
This investment is implemented within the Infrastructure and Environment Operational Programme 2007–2013, “The purchase of rolling stock to service interprovincial connections provided by the Provinces: Małopolskie, Podkarpackie, Śląskie and Świętokrzyskie.”
The joint purchase of the trains by local authorities of provinces shows that there is still a lot of to do with regards to cooperation between Polish regions. This shows that a lot more can be achieved at the same cost, said Mirosław Sekuła, Marshal of Śląskie Province.
All the purchased trains are three-unit, low-floor and air-conditioned EMUs, equipped with the dynamic passenger information system, the monitoring system and a lift for passengers with impaired mobility. Passengers will have a Wi-Fi access and dynamic displays showing timetable s and other relevant information. The trains’ capacity will be 270 to 290 passengers. IMPULS trains will be travelling with a maximum speed of 160km/h.
Władysław Ortyl, Marshal of Podkarpackie Province, expressed his satisfaction that NEWAG with its IMPULS trains won the tender for the train delivery since his region has already own such a train for a year and it works very well.
The modern IMPULS trains will service the routes: Kraków – Kozłów – Kielce – Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, Kraków – Tarnów – Rzeszów, and Kraków – Katowice – Rybnik.
The contract for the delivery of 19, three-unit Electric Multiple Units (EMUs) was signed on 28 August, 2013. The first 10 trains have just been handed over to the ordering parties and the remaining 9 EMUs will have been delivered to Południowa Grupa Zakupowa [Southern Procurement Group] in 2015.