GERMAN Railway revealed on February 2 that it had reached agreement with Austrian Federal Railways to form a joint locomotive leasing pool. An initial fleet of 50 locos is being allocated: 25 of DB’s Siemens-built Class 152 freight locos and 25 of ÖBB’s similar Class 1016 Taurus design. According to ÖBB Director General Helmut Draxler, the Eurotraction pool will be expanded over the next five years, and could eventually total 2000 locos. Rail Cargo Austria has placed orders for 130 new diesel locos and 400 Taurus units, including multi-system versions designated Class 1116.
Meanwhile, the Angel Trains/Vossloh joint venture Locomotion Capital has agreed to purchase a further 20 locos from Vossloh Schienenfahrzeugtechnik, augmenting the initial fleet of 16. The second build will include the G2000 design, as well as the established G1700. Fret SNCF is leasing six G1500s, as Class BB461000, and plans to form a joint venture with Locomotion to buy up to 790 diesel locos from VSFT.
General Motors has decided to build a speculative batch of 10 JT42CWR diesels for demonstration and leasing in mainland Europe. Almost 300 of this design have been delivered to Great Britain as the Class 66, and two are already in service with HGK in Germany.
Last month, Siemens Transportation Systems confirmed that it was restructuring its Dispolok leasing business as a stand-alone subsidiary, Siemens Dispolok GmbH. Based in München, Dispolok is currently leasing 17 electric and diesel locos, and plans to add a further 40 locos over the next two years. n
