Railway Supply » Публікації » For 25 years Ukraine has its own NATIONAL metro train and escalator construction, and we are still looking at foreign companies
This year the field is 25 years old. It is young, promising, and has an interesting history. The field started its existing in Ukraine at the end of the last century (1998) at the Kryukovsky Railway Car Building Works. I will not intrigue the readers any more: this is a sub-branch of domestic mechanical engineering, which involves the creation and production of machinery for metro. Escalator Component
How does it live and work today? There is a hope to win a tender for the supply of 50 cars (10 trains) for the Kyiv metro with funds from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The competition has been running since December 22, 2020. The consideration of the proposals of the tenderers of the second stage took place on March 22, 2023. Two companies took part in the tender: the domestic manufacturer – PJSC “KRCBW” – and “Skoda” (Czech Republic). KRCBW’s proposal meets all technical requirements and is 37% cheaper than the European supplier’s proposal. It’s not mistake – 37%!
Four months have already passed since March, the offer of KRCBW is the most economically advantageous, but CE “Kyiv Metropoliten” has not yet accepted it. Acceptance (lat. acceptus — accepted) — agreement to pay or guarantee payment of documents. Agreement to accept the conditions specified in the offer to conclude a contract. So we wait, we worry, we hope, we believe, we strive to start work.
There is no doubt that we will cope with it. The key to this is the long way of formation and development of the domestic metro cars and escalator construction.
Before the independence of Ukraine, all equipment, rolling stock for metro, as well as spare parts for them, were manufactured outside Ukraine, which led to constant dependence on imported supplies. The result is the constant technological lag of our country in this segment. The Kyiv city state administration and the capital metro were looking for a way out of the situation. It was found when experts from the Kryukovsky Railway Car Building Works came to the metro station with proposals for the supply of products. The plant had the technical capabilities for this and immediately began to master it.
We started in 1997-1998 with spare parts for escalators and metro cars. They were mastered by a subsidiary of KRCBW – Instrumental Factory headed by Mykola Denysenko. Soon, the plant was already producing more than 60 items of such units and parts as traction chains, escalator steps, wheelsets, reducers, frames of metro bogies of increased service life. This process required arranging and conducting of numerous audits of the enterprise, obtaining various permits, licenses and conclusions of state regulatory bodies. At this stage, the heads of Ukrainian metros Mykola Balatskyi, Mykola Shavlovskyi (Kyiv), Leonid Isaev (Kharkiv), Oleg Kotlyarov (Dnipro) and their colleagues actively supported the initiative of the KRCBW. It should be noted that since 1998, it has become a good tradition to hold quarterly meetings of managers of Ukrainian metros. This format of work was supported until 2003. A significant contribution was made by the head of Kyiv Metrobud Volodymyr Petrenko, and Oleksandr Okhotnikov, director of construction.
This joint system work became the starting point for the creation of more complex products.
The experience gained allowed us to start the escalator cunstruction. So, in 2002, the first one was assembled – the EK-106 interfloor lifting machine. Next, they were already working on the ETK-245 escalators for the Syrets station. KRCBW specialists created and produced them in record time. And on October 14, 2004, in a solemn atmosphere with the participation of the President of Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma, four tunnel machines with a laying depth of 43 meters were commissioned. It will soon be 19 years that they have been working successfully.
All structures and elements of the external design of escalators are made of high-quality materials that meet the sanitary and fire regulations in force in Ukraine, guaranteeing their reliability and durability. Laconic design solutions are functional and nice. At that time, we already had experience in the production of passenger cars. Four express trains Kyiv-Kharkiv and Kyiv-Dnipropetrovsk were already running in Ukraine. So the Kryukiv car builders took on a new large-scale task – the creation of a domestic metro car. This is a complex technique. But the idea was actively supported by the heads of the Kyiv City State Administration and CE “Kyiv Metropoliten”. In 2004, the head of the Kyiv City State Administration Oleksandr Omelchenko approved a program of cooperation with KRCBW on the creation of domestic vehicles for the Kyiv metro – cars and trains, bogies, inter-floor and tunnel escalators, spare parts. At the same time, KRCBW was declared as the main enterprise for the creation and production of vehicles for the capital metro.
Of course, there were those who doubted, numerous meetings took place both in the capital and at the factory. But they believed in us, and the Kryukiv car builders have never gone back from their word.
By August 2005, the head and intermediate cars of the metro train were ready. They were presented to the Independence Day of Ukraine with the participation of the President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko during the commissioning of the Boryspilska metro station.
Then there were tests, commissioning works, and in 2008 the Interdepartmental Acceptance Commission gave the right to put this equipment into production. On this experimental rolling stock, the main methods of designing the bodies of metro cars with smooth siding, sliding-plug doors and glued windows, structural solutions of motor and trailer cars, and the parameters of microclimate support systems were developed. We worked on the optimization of project solutions at the levels of planning, coordination and implementation of rolling stock control systems, improved the method of analysing predicted destruction to increase safety indicators, and learned to test metro cars.
For the first time in Ukraine, the configuration of the mask of the head car with minimal aerodynamic resistance was created, the technology of glued windows was applied. The interior of the driver’s cabin and the main elements of his workplace – the main console, seat, auxiliary control devices – have been developed on the basis of European regulations regarding the ergonomics of the workplace. They made it so that the driver had the maximum viewing angle.
Even those first cars had a complex traction drive control system, which minimizes the participation of the driver in controlling the train. For the first time, the Kryukiv car builders used the entrance door of the sliding-plug type, taking into account the requirements of ergonomics as much as possible during the design and manufacture of the interior elements of the passenger compartment. This is how the first metro cars were born both on the paper and in metal.
So, during the years 2004-2008, in Ukraine, at KRCBW, the production of cars for the metro with a direct current traction drive was created. And on January 20, 2009, the first 5-car train started running on the Syretsko-Pecherska line.
In 2010, Kryukovsky Railway Car Building Works produced 5 serial metro trains (25 cars), equipped with direct current traction drive, modern swing suspension bogies mod. 68-797 with an increased service life (produced by PJSC “KRCBW”), air conditioners in the driver’s cab, a complex control system based on microprocessor technology, a video surveillance system, etc. At the same time, the block structure of the train control system takes into account the possibility of automation of the 2nd and 3rd classes, where the driver is only needed to control the operation of the system and the doors.
It should be noted that it took 4 years for the Kryukiv car builders to come from a swing structure of the car frame to a more modern one – rigid bolster bogie with pneumatic suspension and disc brakes. For comparison: for the Moscow metro it took 15 years.
At the same time, the production of escalators for the stations “Darnytsia”, “Demiivska”, “Exhibition Center”, etc. continued. A characteristic feature of ETK-215 (“Exhibition Center”) escalators is the “start/stop” function, which stops the movement of the staircase if there are no people on it, and resumes movement when passengers approach. This saves electricity during the hours when there are few metro passengers and ensures minimal wear of the equipment.
A distinctive feature of these escalators is that their basic design makes it possible to install four narrow-balustrade escalators instead of three in the current standard incline. This allows to increase their actual carrying capacity by 30%.
Currently, 15 domestically produced lifting machines are operating in the Kyiv metro. A total of 48 escalators, including 38 tunnel escalators and 10 inter-floor escalators, were manufactured at KRCBW.
Subsequently, the specialists of KRCBW created a metro train with an asynchronous traction drive. The design of its cars ensures a reduction of electricity consumption by up to 35% through the use of modern energy-efficient equipment with the possibility of returning (recovery) unused electricity to the traction network of the metro.
All power and low-voltage equipment is controlled by a computer control system. It regulates, monitors and protects the traction drive, solves the control and information support tasks for the driver, has integrated functions of antiskid and towage. Besides, the functions of diagnosing critical parameters, as well as providing assistance to the operator during train operation and service maintenance, have been implemented.
Pneumatic springs were installed in the car suspension system, which minimized the frequency of natural oscillations and reduced noise in curved sections of the track. The train automatically keeps the height of the cars relative to the rail head. The air spring system can work under normal conditions (cylinders under pressure) and in emergency mode (cylinders without pressure). The results of the tests confirmed the optimal indicators of smoothness of movement, stability of movement, reduction of the impact of the rolling stock on the rails and safe conditions during acceleration and braking on straight and curved sections of the track.
Another feature of the domestic asynchronous vehicle was the use of disc brakes in bogies. Unlike a pad brake, the friction of the lining on the disk is practically independent of the speed of movement. Besides, the rolling surface of the wheels does not wear out, since the friction pair is not the wheel and the brake pad, but the brake disc and pad. The work carried out showed the prospects of this bogie.
After a full cycle of tests, in September 2012, a presentation of a five-car metro train mod. 81-7036/37 on domestically produced by KRCBW bogies mod. 68-7054 with pneumatic suspension took place at CE “Kyiv Metropoliten”.
The joint work of the Kyiv City State Administration, Ukrainian metro, PJSC “KRCBW” became the basis for the development of the State Program for the construction and development of the metro network for 2006-2010. It was approved by Cabinet Resolution No. 257 of March 7, 2007 and was successfully implemented.
It’s worth mentioning, that today there are 821 cars of various models and years of production in the fleet of CE “Kyiv Metropoliten”, 656of which are of Soviet production. The rest – 165 cars or 20% of the fleet – are rolling stock from the Ukrainian manufacturer.
And this means that every fifth car is produced by KRCBW. 30 new cars (6 trains) with direct current drives of models 81-7021 and 81-7022 produced by PJSC “KRCBW” run on the lines of the capital metro.
And in the years 2014-2017, once again, KRCBW, together with the Japanese company ITOCHU, carried out a significant modernization of 135 cars (27 trains) with the funds according to the Kyoto Protocol. This is a vivid example of international cooperation, a unique experience of working with Japanese companies. The old “E” and “EZH” type cars received new asynchronous traction drives, modern undercarriages with pneumatic suspension and disc brakes, control systems, interior, driver’s cabs with air conditioning. In fact, they have become new modern cars. The Japanese-made running parts and asynchronous traction drive of these modernization trains became the most modern not only at that time, but remain so to this day.
The first modernized cars began to operate in the capital’s metro in the summer of 2014. In October of the same year, a presentation of 10 trains took place with the participation of the heads of the KRCBW, the metro, Japanese partners, and the head of the Kyiv City State Administration Vitaliy Klychko. And the rest of the trains modernized according to up-to-date technology – all 27 of them – came to the Kyiv metro after first ten.
On October 6, 2014, in Kyiv, at the “Darnytsia” electrical depot, a presentation of modernized metro trains was held with the participation of the head of the Kyiv City State Administration Vitaliy Klychko, Japanese partners and the management of KRCBW.
Modernized metro cars with AC asynchronous traction drive mod. 81-7080 and 81-7081 provide up to 40% reduction in electrical energy consumption by returning unemployed electrical energy to the metro network.
This project implements all the most successful constructive solutions that have been implemented in Ukrainian metro since the beginning of the creation of the first domestic train. The interest in the experience of modernization of metro trains was so great that the article “From Kyoto to Kyiv” was published in the magazine “Metro Report” (Great Britain) in 2015.
Against this background, the fact of the transfer to CE “Kyiv Metropoliten” of decommissioned Russian-made cars from the Warsaw Metro, the average age of which is about 30-35 years, seems surprising. And this happens in conditions when the national branch of metro rail construction is able to provide our state with modern rolling stock.
Well, how do you like the story of our national 25-year-old industry? Challenging, fast moving, dignified, full of events and achievements, full of creativity and tireless work, it has made its way from a classic swing suspension bogie to an air-suspended bogie, from a direct current drive to an asynchronous drive. PJSC ” Kryukovsky Railway Car Building Works” is the only Ukrainian manufacturer of metro trains, escalators, and spare parts and has real experience in supplying the mentioned products to both the Kyiv and Kharkiv metro, as well as the metro of such cities as Yerevan, Baku, Tashkent, etc.
13 models of interfloor and tunnel escalators, 14 models of metro cars, and 11 of them are the most modern – with an AC drive, 9 models of bogies for metro cars with traction motors of both direct and alternating current, as well as with pneumatic suspension and disc brakes have been created.
Work on the creation of new equipment continues. Today, KRCBW proposed new technical and design solutions for the exterior and interior of the metro train for the Kharkiv and Kyiv metros.
We are ready to deliver a train consisting of 3 motor and 2 trailer cars with an asynchronous traction drive; the length of the metro train is 97 m; design speed – 90 km/h; the average acceleration of the train is not less than 1 m/s2; the average deceleration of the train is not less than 1.1 m/s2; the intended service life of the car is 50 years; the total capacity of the train (including standing passengers) is 1,650 passengers. There are 2 specially equipped seats for passengers in wheelchairs.
Please, pay attention: the movement of passengers from car to car is free – through hermetic gangways (train-“tube”). KRCBW has been using this idea with the hermetic gangways between cars for a long time in its products.
The main technical solutions that we propose to apply in the design of new metro trains have been successfully working for more than 10 years on domestic interregional locomotive traction trains (the total mileage of two locomotive traction trains is 5.1 million km), EKr1 dual-system electric trains (the total mileage of two trains is 5 .5 million km), as well as suburban diesel train DPKr-2 (mileage – 1.25 million km), regional diesel trains DPKr-3 (total mileage of 6 trains – 1.2 million km). This equipment is operated under difficult weather conditions and at high speeds. And one of the EKr1 trains has equipment for operation at a speed of 200 km/h. Their control systems, asynchronous traction drive, stainless steel metal structures, glued windows, running parts with pneumatic suspension and disc brakes, entrance doors (sliding and sliding-plug), interior solutions, climate control systems have proven their reliability and efficiency in practice.
The need of metro lines in new equipment is huge. I have already mentioned the figures: in the Kyiv metro 80% of the trains have completed their service life, in the Kharkiv metro this percentage is even higher. However, we are observing a pause in purchases, which means also in the development of both metros and metro train construction.
Why is it so? What has changed in Ukraine in recent years, that Chinese won the tender 2019 for the supply of 40 metro cars (8 trains) for the Kharkiv metro with EIB funds? However, the results of the tender have been canceled, so the domestic manufacturer still has hope. However, time is running out, Ukrainian trains could already work, transport passengers and pay for themselves.
And in the aforementioned tender of the Kyiv Metro there was an inexplicable pause with acceptance. It should seem that the patriotic slogan “Buy Ukrainian” in the difficult hour of military aggression should be steadily implemented. So, why at the beginning of the creation of the industry, managers and chief engineers of metro, heads of state administrations of Ukrainian cities where the metro operates were interested in it and took an active part in the development of new equipment, and now we observe not just their inactivity, but a suspicious inclination towards foreign products?
Metro is one of the main types of transport in big cities. And in wartime, it is also a reliable shelter for their residents. Therefore, it is extremely necessary to develop this transport and related mechanical engineering industries in cooperation between communal enterprises, heads of cities and state administrations, heads of manufacturing enterprises for the sake of a significant result and development of the country, for the sake of people who suffered from the war and strive for a better life.
The domestic industry of metro construction, under the condition of stable operation, provides Ukraine not only with a high-tech product, but also provides savings on the cost of purchase, localization of production, a full cycle of service maintenance and a repair base. And as a result – additional income for the population, high-quality training of specialists, involvement of domestic scientific and research organizations, additional income of taxes to the budgets of all levels, reduction of import dependence.
The social effect of the development of the industry is manifested at the macroeconomic (distribution throughout the country), meta-economic (within the industry) and regional levels. Moreover, not all manifestations of the social effect can be accurately assessed and expressed in quantitative indicators. In some cases, only qualitative assessments and expert opinions are possible. It is necessary to take into account the effect obtained in the adjacent branches of the national economy.
Together with PJSC “KRCBW” and its enterprises, we involved more than 60 large partner enterprises in Ukraine in projects for the creation of metro products, they mastered the production of the required parts, assemblies and components, introduced modern technologies and created new jobs.
In Ukraine, there is an opportunity to create and manufacture new metro trains with an asynchronous traction drive and a service life of 50 years, a line of energy-efficient escalators, and to provide service for this equipment throughout its service life. There are European banks ready to finance urban transport development projects. We would overcome corruption and the reluctance of leading state officials to take responsibility!
For 25 years Ukraine has had its own national metro car and escalator construction, and we are still looking at foreign…
For extended information about the national subway car building industry, everyone can get acquainted with the following link
Volodymyr Prykhodko, Chairman of the supervisory board of PJSC “Kryukovsky Railway Car Building Works”, Laureate of the State Prize in the field of science and technology, Member of the Presidium of the Federation of Employers of Ukraine, Candidate of technical sciences.
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