TAIWAN: Taiwan Railways Administration’s procurement agent Bank of Taiwan has awarded Toshiba Infrastructure Systems & Solutions Corp a contract to supply 68 mixed-traffic electric locomotives, the manufacturer announced on October 16.
The order is worth ¥40bn, including spare parts, with TISS scheduled to deliver the locomotives from its Fuchu site in Japan from 2022.
The locomotives will mainly be used to haul inter-city passenger services on the 1 067 mm gauge 25 kV 60 Hz conventional network.
TISS said they would be TRA’s first new electric locomotives since 1992, and it was the first time that the operator had procured complete electric locos from Japan.
The supplier added that the Taiwanese market was a major focus for its rail business, with TRA having announced a 10-year plan in 2015 which envisages spending NT$100bn on the acquisition of approximately 1 300 vehicles.
A €165m order for 34 Stadler diesel-electric locomotives was announced by TRA this month. In January Hitachi signed a NT$44·3bn contract to supply 50 12-car inter-city trainsets, and in June 2018 Hyundai Rotem was selected to supply 52 10-car suburban electric multiple-units.
