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Aeroexpress to Spend $845M on Double-Decker Trains

Aeroexpress will spend 650 million euros ($845 million) on Swiss-made double-decker train cars under the terms of a contract signed Tuesday at City Hall.

The company will purchase the trains from Switzerland's Stadler Bussnang, Interfax reported.

Aeroexpress general director Alexei Krivoruchko said that his company would purchase 118 double-decker passenger cars, with an option on 50 more, for a total contract value of 650 million euros. The trains will be delivered between 2014 and 2016, with first trains coming into service in 2015. The company plans to finance the purchase by borrowing.

The signing ceremony was attended by the companies' general directors, Mayor Sergey Sobyanin, his deputy and the head of the city's department of transportation.

Sobyanin told journalists that the rail cars would allow for a doubling in passenger numbers, while increasing the comfort and speed of service.

Aeroexpress currently uses passenger cars produced by the Demikhovo Machine-building Plant, located about 50 kilometers to the east of Moscow. Due to burgeoning passenger numbers the company issued a tender for new cars in 2012. Aeroexpress plans to carry 18 million passengers this year.

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