Alstom has opened its first bogie centre in Astana, the capital city of Kazakhstan.

The eight-thousand-square-metre centre will produce and maintain bogies – the frameworks that carry wheelsets – for all types of railway vehicles throughout their lifecycle.

Alstom has spent over fifteen million euros on constructing the facility, which has created more than one hundred jobs locally. It has the capacity to produce 200 bogies and overhaul 300 bogies per year.

Alstom boasts that it has optimised the value of its products by applying measures such as:

• extended component lifetimes
• efficient maintenance plans, and
• advanced condition-based maintenance features which will maximise availability.

The company also claims that its bogies are highly reliable, 98% recyclable, and are designed to withstand different environmental and climatic conditions.

As well as manufacturing bogies, the centre will service them, maintaining the condition of bogies and their components. It will carry out repairs and overhauls, lifecycle and technical solutions management, including overhauling bogie sub-components.

This will include repairing wheelsets and dampers, 3D measuring, non-destructive inspection, and testing of wheelsets and motors, with all maintenance activities supported by digital manufacturing processes. The centre can also maintain non-Alstom railway components.

Alstom’s Flexx bogies range includes products suitable for all rail formats, from light rail to high-speed trains. Its Flexx Consult services have studied the wheel-rail interface, in order to improve performance and reduce life cycle cost.

Alstom has been operating in Kazakhstan since 2010 and employs over a thousand workers at eleven sites in six cities:

• two production plants: Electric Locomotive Assembly Plant (EKZ) in Astana and JV KazElectroPrivod (KEP) in Almaty which produces point machines
• four service depots to maintain locomotives in Astana, Almaty, Arys and Shu
• two troubleshooting areas located in Tobol and Ekibastuz
• repair centre, bogie centre and corporate office in Astana.

KTZ, Kazakhstan’s national railway company, is the largest employer in the country, with around one hundred and twenty thousand workers.

Kanat Alpysbayev, Alstom’s Managing Director in Western and Central Asia, said, “Our bogie centre plays a crucial role in providing full maintenance for Alstom freight and passenger locomotives over a 25-year period.

“This state-of-the-art facility has been established as a result of Alstom’s industrialisation development in Kazakhstan. Our bogie centre plays a crucial role in providing full maintenance for Alstom freight and passenger locomotives over a 25-year period. With full range of innovative equipment and services, we are happy to support Kazakhstan’s mobility as a trusted partner.”