Within the German financial co-operation with Viet Nam the Main Line Locomotive Project, based on loan agreement (Loan No. 2000 65 128), was executed with the overall objective to safeguard (and increase) the present traffic volume of Viet Nam railways. By the end of year 2008, Viet Nam Railways (VNR) has taken over a fleet of 16 CoCo locomotives manufactured by Siemens delivering a comparably high tractive effort. The new locomotives were characterized by modern AC/AC three phase traction technology.
However, the majority of the existing locomotive fleet had Diesel hydraulic propulsion. Thus the new locomotives with AC/AC three phase technology so far represented a rather small but important part in the fleet of VNR. To secure the sustainable maintenance of the locomotives the maintenance procedures were improved and the workshop personal needed to be prepared for maintenance of the new electronic components. The project consisted of three main components: (1) fault-finding and maintenance improvement of electronic components; (2) stores control and supply chain management including preparation of specifications for required measuring equipment and spare parts; and (3) training of concerned VNR staff in Viet Nam and in Germany.