November 13, 2013. While in Sverdlovsk Region, Russian President Vladimir Putin paid a visit to Ural Locomotives (a joint venture of Sinara Group and Siemens AG in Verkhnyaya Pyshma), where the production department for ES2G Lastochka trains was launched on that day, Sinara Group’s PR Department reports.

Vladimir Putin, accompanied by Russia’s Industry & Trade Minister Denis Manturov, President of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin, Siemens AG BOD Chairman Joe Kaeser, and Sinara Group BOD Chairman Dmitri Pumpyanski, looked at the body production section, the carriage assembly section, and the train composition sector.

The electric trains production department at Ural Locomotives is fitted with the equipment from the world’s best producers of large-size aluminum welding, mechanical treatment, and carriage coating and assembly equipment. The modern machinery and the employee training programs, including internships at Siemens plant in Krefeld offered to workers, have made it possible for the company to create at least 250 carriages for various types of electric trains as well as light rail vehicles in the future. By 2017, the new production department will employ 1,500 people, and the total number of the JV employees will come to 4,500.

Now under the agreement signed by Russian Railways and Ural Locomotives, 1,200 carriages for Lastochka electric train must be produced by 2020. In 2014, Ural Locomotives expect to make the first nine five-carriage electric trains and get them certified. In 2015, 30 Lastochka trains will be delivered to Russian Railways.