EP20 locomotives run for the Olympics
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The EP20 locomotives, in circulation on the Moscow Sochi line, will transport thousands of people to the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.
The event is making international headlines. The 22nd Winter Olympics will be held from 7 to 23 February 2014 at Sochi in Southern Russia. For this major event, three of the 36 locomotives making up the RZD (Russian Railways) fleet are in service on the Moscow Sochi line.
Sochi, the popular coastal resort on the Black Sea, lies 1,800 kilometres from the Russian capital. Since June 2013, the EP20 locomotives have been providing four services a day between the two cities.
This is being increased to six services a day (with a return trip) during the Games. Able to operate under both alternating and continuous current up to 200 kilometres per hour, the EP20 locomotives can make this journey faster than a standard locomotive, in 25 hours instead of thirty.
Far from insignificant in a country as vast as Russia, this performance is due to the fact that the journey is completed without having to change the engine along the route.
For the duration of the Olympics, the locomotives will be in good hands: Alstom engineers and maintenance operators and those of its local partner TMH, Transmashholding, will provide round-the-clock maintenance. Two of them will be specially seconded to the Sochi depot to guarantee a completely seamless service for users. Priority to sport!