First Czech PENDOLINO is presented in Prague

On June 24, Czech Railways (CD) showed off the first of its
new fleet of seven PENDOLINO trains at Prague's main railway
station in a presentation with the theme a new look into
the future.

Attending the presentation were about 300 people, including CD
and ALSTOM personnel, local partners and suppliers, the local
press, the Italian ambassador, and officials from the Czech
homologation authority, Drazni Urad. Guests crowded around the
gleaming seven-car train, which had made the journey from
ALSTOM's plant in Savigliano, Italy, only days before.

Milan imonovský, the Czech minister of transport,
warmly congratulated the team and paid tribute to the cooperative
spirit that allowed them to arrive at this key milestone in the
project.

 

Emilio Gallocchio, vice president for high-speed trains at
ALSTOM Transport, paid tribute to all those who have worked on
the project. He noted that the next step toward a successful
launch of the Prague-Vienna-Berlin service, for which the
PENDOLINOs are intended, is that of homologation.

Petr Kousal, director general of CD, evoked the centenary of
the electrification of the railways in the Czech Republic, which
saw the arrival of powerful locomotives and express trains in the
country. With the new PENDOLINOs, he said, CD joins the ranks of
high-speed rail operators and begins a new era of higher levels
of service for passengers.

Mr. imonovský welcomed the beautiful PENDOLINO
flagship trainset into the Czech railway family, calling it an
airplane on tracks. He said that the train would
shorten the travel time from Prague to the eastern Czech city of
Brno and expressed his confidence the trains would receive the
homologation necessary for the train to run in Austria and
Germany.

He concluded by saying that the fleet will help fulfill
promises to passengers for better railway service, and that the
PENDOLINO represented the ultimate goal for which CD services
should aim.

The VIPs then completed a giant jigsaw puzzle bearing a photo
of the train, symbolically joining the Czech Republic with other
European countries that operate PENDOLINOs. They then baptized
the Czech PENDOLINO before declaring it open for the enthusiastic
guests to visit.

Photo caption: In the photo Presentation
of the PENDOLINO for Czech Railways are Emilio Gallocchio,
vice president for high-speed trains at ALSTOM Transport (left),
Milan imonovský, the Czech transport minister
(center), and Petr Kousal, director general of Czech
Railways.

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Press information:

Helen Connolly

Tel. +33 (0)1 41 66 91 43

helen.connolly@transport.alstom.com