The FINANCIAL -- Lithuanian Railways (Lietuvos Geležinkeliai) has ordered another ten Class ER20 CF freight locomotives from Siemens Mobility. The order – which includes testing and maintenance parts – is worth over 35 million euros. Two locomotives a month will be shipped between May and September 2010.

In 2005, Lithuanian Railways ordered 34 six-axle diesel-electric locomotives to the value of 123 million euros and also took out an option for another ten units. Twenty of those units have already been built in Siemens' locomotive plant in Munich, Germany and delivered to the customer. The ER20 CF belongs to the Siemens Eurorunner series and will run primarily on the transit corridor between Russia and the Baltic ports of Klaipeda and Kaliningrad.

Weighing in at 138 metric tons, the ER20 CF is one of the heaviest locomotives in Europe and, in double-heading mode, can pull trains weighing as much as 6,000 metric tons. Up till now, freight locomotives operating in Lithuania could only haul 4,000 metric tons at most. And when it comes to comparing fuel consumption, the ER20 CF is 40 percent more efficient than the legacy locomotives from other vendors.

The Eurorunner locomotives are available in four- or six-axle variants. The six-axle variety will go into service for the first time in Lithuania. The four-axle Eurorunner is currently in service for the Austrian Federal Railways, the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC) in Hong Kong and several private railway operators in Germany and Austria.

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