ITALY: Siemens Mobility and leasing company Railpool have announced plans to jointly invest €20m in the development of a ‘state-of-the-art’ locomotive service hub in Verona, to capitalise on the modal shift towards rail which is expected to follow the opening of the Brenner Base Tunnel.
The companies have signed a preliminary agreement to purchase a 15 000 m² plot of land within the Verona Interporto logistics hub from Consorzio ZAI.
The open access Partner Rail Service Centre will service locomotives from various manufacturers, undertaking light maintenance, routine inspections and minor adjustments to ensure immediate operational readiness.
It will have five tracks for light maintenance and one track equipped with a wheel lathe, and the ability to maintain all major European signalling systems and test multi-system and DC locomotives.
The Verona site will complement the existing Siemens Mobility Rail Service Centre in Novara, which has been providing full service for more than 120 locomotives operated by various companies since 2015.
Railpool will leverage expertise from its six in-house workshops and expand its capabilities, supported by its team in Italy and its own warehouse containing over 4 500 spare parts.
In 2024 Siemens Mobility signed a framework agreement to supply of up to 250 Vectron locomotives to Railpool, including multisystem variants capable of operating in up to 16 countries.
‘With our new maintenance hub in Verona, we are strengthening our service network across Europe’s key logistics corridors’, said Railpool CEO Torsten Lehnert on December 10. ‘This investment underscores our long-term commitment to delivering reliable, full-service locomotive leasing solutions that support the evolving needs of customers throughout the continent.’
