Kazakh national railway company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (Kazakhstan Railways, KTZ) intends to purchase 1,200 passenger carriages. 25 new cars will be entered into service in August. The remainder is scheduled to deliver in the next ten years.

New carriages will be produced by the Kazakh car manufacturer Tulpar-Talgo, a subsidiary of Transmashholding. The delivered passenger coaches will run on two routes: Almaty – Mangystau (east-west direction) and Nur-Sultan (former Astana) – Saryagash (north-south direction). Each couchette car has a capacity for carrying 54 passengers on sleeping places. These carriages are equipped with air-conditioning, vacuum toilets and modern fire alarm systems.

Tulpar-Talgo carriages

Currently, the KTZ fleet includes 2188 passenger cars. Of them, 670 carriages have been delivered by Tulpar-Talgo while 987 cars were upgraded. The passenger service is provided by the state-owned enterprise Passenger Transportation, a subsidiary of Kazakhstan Temir Zholy. It serves 199 routes across the country. Every year the company carries 18 million passengers.

Tulpar-Talgo plant is based in the capital city of Nur-Sultan. It was opened in 2001 as a joint venture of KTZ and Spanish company Talgo. The facility is focused on manufacturing passenger cars. In October 2018, 99 per cent of the company’s shares were acquired by Transmashholding. Talgo still owns 1 per cent of Tulpar-Talgo. The Russian rolling stock company plans to increase its presence in Kazakhstan and produce its own passenger cars at the Kazakh facility.