Railpool, one of Europe’s leading rail vehicle rental companies, has concluded a framework agreement with Siemens Mobility for the delivery of up to 250 trains. With the signing of the contract, 70 Vectron locomotives were immediately called up; these comprise 24 multi-system (MS) locomotives for use in AC and DC networks, and 46 AC trains.

With this order, Railpool’s Vectron fleet will grow to a total of 228 locomotives. The framework agreement also includes Vectron variants that can operate in up to 16 countries and on various European rail corridors (north-south and east-west).

Railpool’s CEO Torsten Lehnert said: “The recent expansion of our modern fleet is taking place with a focus on maximum operational flexibility for our customers. In addition to the multi-system locomotives for east-west traffic, we are adding further AC locomotives to our range, primarily for the Scandinavian corridor and the DACH region (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland). Like the MS locomotives, the AC locomotives are also perfectly equipped for the upcoming ETCS (European Train Control System) expansion in Europe.”

Albrecht Neumann, Siemens Mobility’s CEO of Rolling Stock, added: “We are especially pleased to be continuing our successful collaboration with Railpool. Follow-up orders like this show that our locomotives impress customers with their quality and operational reliability. Thanks to the Vectron’s universal usability, our customer can respond quickly and flexibly to changing market needs, and provide climate-friendly, cross-border rail transport throughout Europe.”

The trains for Railpool have an output of 6.4MW and, depending on the variant, can reach a top speed of up to 230kph. Including this first call, Siemens Mobility has sold more than 2,400 trains from the Vectron family to 96 customers in 16 countries. To date, the fleet has covered more than 900 million km. The Vectron-platform locomotives are approved for operation in 20 European countries.