FINLAND: National railway’s VR freight business VR Transpoint and Austrian company Innofreight have agreed to develop a wagon with a demountable body for use on Finland’s 1 524 mm gauge network.
The €10m agreement covers the development of a prototype Finnowagon this year. Once type approval has been obtained this would be followed by an order for 50 wagons and the lease of the containers required. The vehicles are expected to enter service in late 2017.
The wagons would carry traffic including mining and biomass products, and replace older vehicles including tank wagons. The exact number of new wagons needed will be assessed as the project progresses.
‘This modular solution will bring a new kind of agility to our logistics service’, believes Rolf Jansson, VR’s Senior Vice-President for Logistics. ‘When the customer’s transport needs change, we only need to change the container and can continue rapidly using the same chassis.’
