OREANDA-NEWS. May 26, 2011. Russian Railways and Bombardier Transportation (Signal) Limited signed a joint venture in 1996, the first ever international joint venture on Russia’s railways, reported the press-centre of RZD.

The main focus of the jv was to equip railway stations with the EBI Lock 950 – Interlocking System for switches and signals. EBI Lock 950 computer-based interlocking systems supervise and control wayside objects such as point machines, signals and level-crossing protection equipment.

Now marking its 15th anniversary, the jv has since it was founded equipped and commissioned microprocessor-based interlocking systems at 101 railway stations in Russia and 29 abroad. The first system was fitted at Kalashnikovo station on October Railways in June 1999.

Today, the EBI Lock 950 system has been installed at 15 railways in Russia from Kaliningrad to the Far East covering more than 3,000 points and about 350 kilometres of integrated automatic lock.

The EBI Lock microprocessor system provides for a significant improvement in through capacity, a wide range of functional features and greater flexibility compared to conventional systems.

On 13 December 2010, Russian Railways signed an agreement with Bombardier Transportation for the purchase of a stake in ELTEZA, a manufacturer of alarm centralisation and blocking systems.

As part of this agreement, a programme of technology transfer and production localisation of new-generation microprocessor and electromechanical products will be implemented in Russia.