Hyundai Rotem’s high-speed train entered commercial service in Uzbekistan on Tuesday.
Photo by Hyundai Rotem
SEOUL, May 6 (UPI) — South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem said Wednesday it has begun commercial operations of its first exported high-speed train in Uzbekistan.
The affiliate of Hyundai Motor Group said the new train is serving the Central Asian country’s longest railway route, stretching about 630 miles between Tashkent and Khiva.
Hyundai Rotem said the new train is designed to run at a maximum speed of 155 mph, cutting the travel time between the two major cities almost in half to about seven hours.
The company said that the train, based on Korea’s EMU-260 platform, was customized for the unique conditions of Uzbekistan, such as arid desert environments and extreme summer heat.
Hyundai Rotem had signed a contract with Uzbekistan Railways in 2024 for the first overseas export of a Korean-developed high-speed train, which can accommodate up to 389 passengers.
The Korea Export-Import Bank had pledged to fully fund the purchases through concessional loans worth hundreds of millions of dollars, with a repayment period of 40 years and a grace period of 10 years.
“Togethee with our domestic component suppliers, we will do our best to ensure stable maintenance and successful completion of the Uzbekistan high-speed rail project,” Hyundai Rotem said in a statement.
“We will keep expanding export footholds for Korean high-speed trains and focus on laying the groundwork for the shared growth of our country’s railway industry,” it added.
The share price of Hyundai Rotem dropped .42% on the Seoul bourse Wednesday.