For acquisition of the new electric trains and bicycle racks, we have attracted the maximum available financing of the European Union funds in the amount of 168,191,033 euros, thus significantly reducing the project impact on the state budget.
Co-financing of two European Union fund projects has been granted for acquisition of the new electric trains.
Acquisition of the first 17 new electric trains has been implemented in accordance with the Cabinet Regulation No. 467 “Regulations for implementation of the measure 4.5.1.1 “To develop environment-friendly public transport infrastructure (rail transport)” of the specific objective 4.5.1 “To develop environment-friendly public transport infrastructure” of the operational programme “Growth and Employment”” of 28 July 2020, attracting co-financing of 101,671,238 euros from the available financing of the European Union structural funds and the Cohesion Fund in the 2014–2020 planning period. Whereas acquisition of the remaining 15 new electric trains and racks for transportation of bicycles has been implemented in accordance with the Cabinet Regulation No. 579 “Regulations for implementation of measure 2.4.1.2 “Acquisition of emission-free trains – electric trains” of the specific objective 2.4.1 “To facilitate sustainable multimodal mobility by promoting use of electric vehicles” of the European Union Cohesion Policy Programme for 2021–2027” of 30 August 2024, attracting co-financing of 66,519,795 euros.
The total costs of acquisition of the new electric trains comprise 2,44,846,309 euros, out of which 168,191,033 euros were attracted from the European Union Cohesion Fund, thus we have managed to attract the maximum available amount of financing of the European funds.
Initially, it was planned to fully finance acquisition of all new electric trains using the state budget funds; however, in close cooperation with the Ministry of Transport we found a possibility to attract financing of the European Union funds for the project. Although we encountered many challenges during implementation of the project, which were related to the impact of Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, in collaboration with all involved parties, including the Ministry of Finance and the Central Finance and Contracting Agency, we managed to successfully overcome all difficulties and ensure acquisition of the available financing of the European Union funds in full amount.
We have introduced all 32 new electric trains in the daily traffic. Currently, also equipping of the electric trains with bicycle racks has been commenced.