TRAXX Hauler locomotives for UZ
posted on 18th Nov 2025 10:39
On 17 November 2025, the presidents of Ukraine and France signed a contract for the purchase of one hundred Rafale fighter jets at the Villacoublay air base southwest of Paris. This huge order, which also includes the supply of unmanned aerial vehicles, drones and other military systems, also "hidden" a "small thing" in the form of a contract for 55 locomotives for the UZ from Alstom.
This contract will be financed by international partners - EBRD and the World Bank, more precisely from its Ukraine Relief, Recovery, Reconstruction and Reform Trust Fund (URTF). The transaction is worth 473 million EUR and also includes maintenance support, spare parts kits and training of drivers and maintenance personnel. Of this amount, 300 million EUR is a preferential long-term loan from the EBRD and 173 million EUR is a non-refundable grant aid from the URTF, thanks to which the actual costs for UZ were reduced by approximately 37 %. The entire agreement was made possible thanks to the support of the Ministry of Community and Territorial Development of Ukraine and a state guarantee obtained with the assistance of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine.
Oleksiy Kuleba, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Municipal and Territorial Development of Ukraine, added: “This is an important investment that strengthens the economic security and sustainability of our logistics. It solves a critical problem - the outdated locomotive fleet, the average age of which exceeds 46 years. The wear of this segment of the fleet is over 96 %, and in two to three years the lack of traction would not allow us to transport the required volumes of freight, which would significantly narrow our export opportunities, since railways are currently a key sector in this sense.”
The contract for the locomotives was concluded after an international tender by the World Bank, in which, according to the information provided, more than ten manufacturers of railway vehicles from Europe and Asia participated. Alstom’s offer was “carefully evaluated in accordance with international rules and qualified as the most advantageous with the participation of independent technical and procurement consultants.”
In any case, the choice of supplier was known much earlier than mid-November, as Alstom „disclosed this order in a previous Note to Investors, issued on 26 September 2025, which did not mention the customer's name (which is Ukrainian Railways). This order was booked in Q2 FY 2025/26.“
Let's just hope that thanks to the renowned foreign institutions involved in the process, it will be possible to prevent (or at least significantly limit) the loss of funds in the gray corruption zone of Ukrainian politics, which has still not disappeared and which just resurfaced at the beginning of this November, this time in the form of a giant corruption structure in the energy sector around Enerhoatom, where hundreds of millions USD were lost.
New locomotives
Ukrzaliznytsia is therefore to receive locomotives for 3 kV DC and 25 kV 50 Hz, which will mean the first modern dual-voltage locomotives in its fleet. The word “modern” is important here, as UZ already has dual-voltage machines, namely the Class VL82, or now only the Class VL82M, which were built at NEVZ in 1966 - 68 (Class VL82) and 1972 - 79 (Class VL82M). Their maximum speed is 110 km/h and with two sections they have a power of 5,700 kW, the starting traction force is 667 kN (Class VL82M).
The locomotives just ordered will be from the heavy-duty TRAXX Hauler family, which was created by Alstom in 2023, when the previous Prima brand was replaced by the TRAXX name for main line locomotives after the takeover of Bombardier Transportation in 2021.
The locomotives will have a top speed of 120 km/h, a power of 9,000 kW (it is possible that this is a rounded value of 8,800 kW) and a starting tractive force of 800 kN, which parametrically corresponds to the original Prima of Type T8 from Alstom, and therefore to the two-section Class KZ8A locomotives used by KTZ (Bo’Bo’ + Bo’Bo’, 25 kV 50 Hz, power 8,800 kW).
The first locomotive of the new class, which, following the previous 1,520 mm gauge versions of Primas, could quite realistically have the designation UZ8A, is scheduled to arrive in Ukraine in the first quarter of 2027, after which it will begin testing and approval. Deliveries of the batch are to continue in 2027 - 29, and these 55 TRAXXes will replace approximately 80 existing locomotives, which will allow for a reduction in operating costs by more than 30 %, including many times longer runs between maintenance stages compared to the old locomotives with resistance power control and commutator traction motors. In addition, thanks to the dual-voltage traction equipment of the TRAXXes, the change of AC and DC locomotives will be eliminated on most routes.
Given the short delivery times, the TRAXX Haulers will be manufactured in France, which means final assembly at Belfort, similar to the initial deliveries of Primas to Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, which were then batchbuilt at the EKZ Astana. However, the agreement also creates opportunities for Ukrainian industry, as Alstom promises to involve manufacturers of various components (wheelsets, brake pads, wiring, cooling systems, ATP, communication systems, etc.). A meeting of representatives of Alstom, UZ and domestic companies is planned for the first quarter of 2026 to discuss future cooperation. In addition, a service center for these TRAXXes will be built in one of the UZ depots.
So, perhaps UZ will now really get modern locomotives, as many previous such activities have always failed at various stages - either only a small part of the originally intended numbers was delivered, or the plans were not actually implemented. And as the following description shows, all the major world and European manufacturers of electric locomotives (perhaps except CRRC) have already "burned" on Ukrainian railways (for simplicity we will ignore the diesel locomotives and EMUs/DMUs).
Looking back at past plans
In the field of electric locomotives, it is certainly worth mentioning the Class DS3 express locomotives for 25 kV 50 Hz, which were produced in 2003 - 08 in cooperation with the Dnipropetrovsk DEVZ factory and Siemens, when only 18 ones remained from the planned 100-strong batch. The intended improved batch of the Class DS3M also ended up only on paper.
The UZ renewal plan for 2012 - 16, which expected the arrival of 509 new locomotives, turned out similarly. This number included, in particular, the purchase of 110 Class VL11M/6 locomotives (for 3 kV DC) from the Georgian company Elmavalmshenebeli (former TEVZ, Tbilisskoy elektrovozostrojitelny zavod) and 70 Class 2ES5K Yermak (for 25 kV 50 Hz) and 230 Class 2ES4K Donchaks (for 3 kV DC). Finally, 15 Class 2ES5Ks were delivered from NEVZ and on their basis, only 20 Class 2EL5 locomotives for 25 kV and subsequently 6 Class 2EL4 locomotives for 3 kV were built at Luhanskteplovoz in cooperation with TMH. However, the project was terminated following the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014.
The 2013 contract for 50 DC freight locomotives from the Uralskie lokomotivy (UL), i. e. 49 Class 2ES10 (Granit) and one Class 2ES6 (Sinara), also ended ingloriously. The first three locomotives were finally shipped to Ukraine in mid-December 2013, but were still at the Kupyansk station in the northeast of the country (about 100 km from Kharkiv) in mid-February 2014. The initial cause was cited as payment problems from UZ, but then political developments in Ukraine intervened joined with the annexation of Crimea to the Russian Federation. Therefore, at the end of February 2014, the three locomotives were returned to the manufacturer, and a total of seven such machines were adapted to Russian standards and then handed over to RZD as Granits.
In 2013, Ukrzaliznytsia also worked on specifying the parameters for new six-axle locomotives, which were to emerge from the planned joint venture between Škoda Transportation and ZEZ (Zaporizkyi elektrovozoremontnyi zavod). UZ planned to purchase 480 machines, of which 100 were to be dual-voltage for freight transport, 50 dual-voltage for passenger transport, and the remaining 330 single-voltge for passenger transport. In the following years, up to 90 % of Ukrainian-produced parts were to be gradually used in the new locomotive production; unfortunately, this plan did not work out either.
The efforts of the domestic industry were not much better... In April 2015, the KVSZ (Kryukivskyi vagonobudivnyi zavod) announced its intention to expand its production to include electric freight locomotives, which it should be able to supply from 2017. This was a response to the fact that at that time it was already stated that 90 % of UZ electric locomotives were at the end of their service life and needed to be replaced. KVSZ had also planned to produce passenger locomotives, but this effort also froze.
Bombardier Transportation (BT) also tried to succeed in the local market, signing a MoU with UZ in 2016, the aim of which was to supply TRAXX F120 MS locomotives in a 1,520 mm gauge version. The first visible step was to test the Class 2EV120 locomotive, built at the PLK (Pervaya lokomotivnaya kompania) of Engels, but this did not happen and after two years the entire activity ended in silence.
And last but not least, Alstom was active in Ukraine. In February 2022, it signed a contract with UZ for the supply of 130 Primas for freight transport, of which 80 were to be dual-voltage and 50 for 25 kV only. However, the way to this was not entirely straightforward, as almost 3.5 years had passed since the announcement of the preliminary agreement at InnoTrans 2018. In the spring of 2020, the tender for these locomotives was cancelled, and only a year later did the government choose Alstom as the supplier.
In May 2021, an intergovernmental agreement was signed between Ukraine and France, approved by the Ukrainian parliament in July, and by President Zelensky in August. At that time, the plan was that the relevant contract would be signed by the end of 2021 (including the contract for the maintenance of the new locomotives by the manufacturer), so that its implementation could begin on 1 January 2022. In the end, the signing took place on 8 February 2022, but the fundamental problem was that no funds were allocated for this contract in the state budget of Ukraine for 2022. And the final blow to the whole process was dealt by the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022...
Now the circle has closed and it seems that Alstom has finally succeeded in Ukraine with its original Prima locomotives (under the new name TRAXX Hauler), of course with strong political support from the highest places. After so many years, there is nothing more to wish for the Ukrainian railways and railway workers, that at least this contract will actually be fulfilled.
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