The Czech national railway operator — Ceske Drahy (CD) (www.cd.cz) — has placed an order with the Siemens-Skoda consortium for 50 of the most modern passenger carriages in Europe.

Tomas Ignacak, deputy chairman and vice-president of the Skoda Transportation (www.skoda.cz) group, said: “Skoda Transportation is currently producing six high-speed trains for the German carrier Deutsche Bahn, so we are well placed to deliver high-speed cars for CG.

“Our involvement in this contract will be in the assembly and activation of the vehicles, which will provide work for employees in production as well as Czech technicians.”

The value of the contract for the supply of 50 express carriages for international lines of CD is almost 3 billion CZK (about $136 million). The first cars will be delivered within 32 months of the signing of the contract.

CD director Miroslav Kupec said: “The consortium will deliver 50 passenger carriages, assembled into 10 trains with five carriages each, with barrier-free access for passengers throughout the train.

“We will be able to connect several units to create a longer train.”