This month leasing company Alpha Trains expects to complete deliveries of nine 2·8 MW Stadler Euro4001 Stage IIIB compliant diesel locomotives ordered by SNCF subsidiary Captrain France. The locos are fitted with ETCS, KVB and TBL1+ equipment for use in France and Belgium. ‘Adding this powerful Euro4001 to our portfolio strengthens our market share in France and underscores our ambition to provide the most innovative and efficient solutions’, said Fernando Pérez, Managing Director of Alpha Trains Locomotives.
DB Cargo Polska has ordered a further four Siemens Mobility Vectron MS locomotives, which are to be delivered this year for use on intermodal services in Poland and the Czech Republic. ‘Modern multi-system Vectron locomotives, combined with the company’s advanced logistics systems, will allow us to offer customers a completely new quality on the tracks’ said President of the management board Marek Staszek.
Metsä Group has awarded VR Transpoint a contract to transport 5 million m3/year of round wood to a mill which is under construction in Kemi for completion in 2023. VR Transpoint will acquire approximately 200 wagons for the services, which will require a total of more than 400 wagons to operate an average of nine trains a day.
Stern & Hafferl Verkehr ordered three more Siemens Mobility Vectron electro-diesel locomotives during February to make use of a federal government support scheme which was about to end. They are to be delivered in early 2022, joining the operator’s existing Vectron electro-diesel and enabling the withdrawal of older diesel locos.
On February 7 Nippon Express launched a weekly scheduled rail freight service from Suzhou in China to Małaszewicze in Poland and Hamburg and Duisburg in Germany. The company said the service was developed to meet a growing customer need, with a shortage of vessel space having ‘sharply boosted’ demand for rail transport and in turn created shortages of space on Europe-bound trains operating from major stations in China. It is also planning services from Suzhou to Moscow in Russia and Hanoi in Vietnam.
Germany’s transport ministry has commissioned TÜV Rheinland InterTraffic to support the development of concepts for a noise-based train path pricing system.
ÖBB’s Rail Cargo Group has increased the frequency of its TransFER intermodal service between Trieste, Wien and Linz to two round trips per week from March 1, offering onward distribution opportunities from Wien to Budapest and connections with international supply chains between Europe and China.