UPDATE 1-Russian Railways to buy trains from Bombardier

By Anton Doroshev

SOCHI, Russia, May 29 (Reuters) - State-owned Russian Railways plans to order high-speed trains worth up to 550 million euros ($770 million) from Canada's Bombardier Inc as part of a push to develop the Olympic venue of Sochi, an executive said.

First Vice President Fyodor Andreyev said on Friday Russian Railways could order up to 54 trains from Bombardier, the world's No. 1 passenger train builder, to serve the region around the Russian city hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics.

'All the trains should be supplied by 2013,' Andreyev told reporters. He said the value of the order was likely to be between 500 million euros and 550 million.

Russia has pledged to spend about $12 billion developing Sochi on the Black Sea coast for the Olympics and the purchase of modern trains from a foreign supplier underlines its determination to host a showcase international event.

Russian Railways' press service said the company would not use part of the $12 billion earmarked by the state for the Bombardier deal. Andreyev said the company might raise a syndicated loan for the purchase. He gave no more details.

The financial crisis has left half of Russia's own train building factories idle as demand has plummeted.

Russian Railways has already placed an order worth 276 million euros with German engineering company Siemens AG for eight high-speed trains to serve major intercity routes from Moscow. This agreement includes additional maintenance costs of more than 354 million euros over 30 years.

The state monopoly has also ordered four trains from France's Alstom for around 120 million euros.

Both Siemens and Alstom have invested heavily in Russia's dilapidated train-building industry and plan to build trains in Russia.

(Editing by David Holmes)

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