The first two electric locomotives manufactured in Romania for the National Railway Company – CFR will enter final testing this week on the Buftea – Brazi stretch, representatives of the Craiova-based rolling stock producer Softronic announced after Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu visited the plant on Tuesday.

The head of the Executive even turned on the power switch on the first locomotive produced under a roughly EUR 100 million worth of contract the scope of which is the modernization of 19 locomotives for national railway operator CFR Calatori.

„This plant runs on 100 percent Romanian capital, which is fantastic, and shows that with dedicated involvement and work, one can succeed in 25 years to become the only producer of electric locomotives and not only – of rolling stock – in South-Eastern Europe. Moreover, I am happy that a plant with Romanian capital is also the beneficiary of NRRP funds. (…) It is one of Romania’s most important exporters and I think that we will continue this partnership. As normal, I took some homework too. I spoke with the National Energy Regulatory Authority, because the patent and the secret of these locomotives is that they save almost 28-29% of energy. It is a Romanian patent, designed in this plant, in other words, they produce electricity from kinetic energy, whereas until now we were used to the static energy producing system. We still don’t have the necessary legislation to regulate the recovery of kinetic energy, and I think we need to keep up with the development of technology… It’s a matter of pride, because, you see, the Romanian capital has come to such a performance,” Ciolacu told a press conference at the end of his visit to the Softronic facility.

Ciolacu was accompanied on his visit to Craiova by city mayor Olguta Vasilescu, who said that the fact that CFR locomotives are now being manufactured in Oltenia’s seat city is a reason for pride.

AGERPRES