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A rapid social and economic development of the European Union countries, their technical progress, and world trade globalization tendencies generate a huge demand for high-quality transportation services. The countries of the Western Europe, being concerned about safety, environment, sustainable use of the energy and other resources, use economic and legal measures to encourage transportation of passengers and freights. A catenary is a complex technical mechanism of electrified railways, for which specific requirements are applied, depending on the type of current, the capacity of electrified trains, speed, traffic intensity, road profile, geographic location and other conditions influencing constructional solutions and the peculiarities of maintenance. The article analyses the peculiarities of direct current and alternating current catenary maintenance in summer and winter periods. The solutions are provided for the improvement of the contact of a pantograph current collector of an electric train and the contact wire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]