Russian Railways deny shortage of spare parts for servicing Lastochkas and Sapsan

Information about the predicted shortage of spare parts for servicing the Lastochka and Sapsan trains does not correspond to reality, Russian Railways reported. The company stated that it organized maintenance and repair of rolling stock on its own, and also arranged supplies “in the required volume” of analogues of Russian and imported components.

Russian Railways added that to prevent shortages in the future, localization of spare parts production was launched in Russia. “Russian Railways operate high-speed and high-speed trains, as before, in full compliance with regulatory requirements. There is no reason to worry about this,” the company told RIA Novosti.

The NeMoskva portal, citing an unnamed source “who knows the situation from the inside,” reported the day before that out of 260 Lastochka trains, 54 were completely assembled in Germany. The portal’s interlocutor did not rule out that “some of the trains will be used for technical cannibalism—some trains will be dismantled in order to assemble others.” The source expressed doubts that the localization of production has already reached 80%, as stated by Russian Railways.

“Swallows” were built on the basis of the Siemens Desiro electric train; the trains were serviced by the Russian subsidiary of Siemens. In March 2022, the company left the Russian market due to sanctions against Russia. Russian Railways awaits supplies of the Russian analogue of Lastochka this year. In February the trial obliged Siemens will fulfill the contract for the supply of 13 Sapsan aircraft for Russian Railways.

Laura Keffer