INTRO: Germany’s railway reforms paved the way for open access operators to enter the freight business, sparking a demand for motive power available on short or long-term lease. Ralf Roman Rossberg looks at the ’rent-a-loco’ business set up by suppliers who have established pools of locomotives, lending encouragement to DB Cargo’s competitors
LEGISLATION for Germany’s 1994 railway reforms brought an end to many traditions in the railway business. German Railway was suddenly faced with the prospect of open access operators competing on its own tracks, and it was not long before the first independent companies tackled the rail freight market. This quickly stimulated demand for motive power, giving birth to an embryonic commercial market for locomotives.
It was a fresh experience for the German railway businesses - the leased locos had to offer high standards in terms of power, speed and availability, matched by low operating costs. They had to be available at short notice and sometimes just for short-term contracts. Faced with a surge in demand, Germany’s railway industry began to work out how to fill the gap in demand.
Both Siemens and Adtranz addressed the opportunity, and by mid-1999 both had in place the makings of a commercial pool. They were not alone. Vossloh had for some time been leasing small quantities of locos to Germany’s independent railways. It took a major step forward on July 14, when it announced the formation of a locomotive leasing subsidiary with British rolling stock lessor Angel Trains (RG 8.00 p458).
On Rail of Mettmann had for some years been rebuilding wagons and locomotives for hire, and was the first supplier to develop its own pool of rail vehicles. At that time the only form of loco leasing was under long-term contracts, whereas today’s leasing companies have units available for short-term use, even for single movements.
Independent companies have the right to use the DB network under the same conditions as the owner, provided that they have a railway operator’s licence known as an EVU. They include large industrial concerns which often have their own private railway networks. Others are independent railways and track maintenance contractors. But it soon became clear that having an EVU was not all that was required to haul freight on the DB network.
In the early days there was a serious shortage of suitable locos. Newly established companies were not always able to risk the high investment, and others did not wish to have their capital tied up for the long term.
Competitive threat
DB Cargo, understandably, was not exactly enthusiastic about helping its competitors up into the saddle. It maintains that its withdrawn locomotives must be used to provide spares for other units still in traffic, and usually they are only sold as scrap under controlled conditions. In the long term this policy will not prevent new companies from breaking into the market, as there is a political will to have on-rail competition. Not only that, but the competitors have lost no time in demonstrating that they are bursting with fresh ideas.
For example, one of the first diesel locomotives to haul a train in competition with DB Cargo was rescued from a museum, which shortly before had acquired it for next to nothing from DB. Then the Russian-owned Kaliningrad Railway sold back to a German operator two locos that it had acquired earlier from DB for hauling standard-gauge trains into Poland, which were no longer needed. Other locomotives of Russian design are arriving on German soil from eastern Europe, especially from the Czech Republic and Romania. These are then modernised or rebuilt to run in Germany.
By setting up pools of locomotives, suppliers have fuelled the fires of competition. They have even diverted locomotives on the production lines destined for DB Cargo to competing operators. But newcomers soon found that there was a shortage of locomotive drivers. This was one reason why Swiss Federal Railways had 18 drivers trained in Germany to handle the trains of independent operators bound for Switzerland or Italy. Although they passed their driving exams with flying colours, for many months they were not granted German work permits as they were not EU citizens.
Inter-works traffic
Large industrial concerns with rail operations on their own premises were among the first to launch their own services. Notable among these was the chemicals giant BASF based in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, which has a 210 route-km network. The first service was a container train that began running on September 1 1997 over the 30 km between Ludwigshafen and Germersheim.
Today BASF’s rail operations extend from Schwarzheide, southwest of Cottbus, to Basel on the Swiss border, from where trains continue to and from Swiss or Italian destinations. The company also hauls potash from mines in Nordhessen to Ludwigshafen. Seven locomotives are in use on BASF traffic, including several from the Adtranz pool.
Freight forwarders too have rediscovered the railway after many years of domination by road. Rhenus of Mannheim, for example, took a majority share in the Waldhof Railway (BGW), so gaining an EVU licence. Rhenus-Rail was born with three business sectors: rail logistics, Eurobahn for passenger traffic, and BGW, which handles freight. This autumn Rhenus-Rail plans to expand its network to embrace services linking Scandinavia and southern Europe, and the Rhein-Ruhr industrial area with Poland and eastern Europe. At the same time Rhenus-Rail co-operates with DB Cargo to handle regional freight traffic. All this activity has increased demand for locomotives, and so far BGW has nine of its own; the company was the first to lease a high-power electric from Siemens.
The same locomotive was used for trials by Hamburg-based tank wagon and dangerous cargo specialist Hoyer, which has in the meantime set up its own railway operation. The initiative came from Bayer AG’s subsidiary at Brunsbüttel on the Elbe estuary, from where the company sent its products via intermodal services to west and south Germany, Spain, Italy and France. Yet the company trucked containers over the 110 km between Brunsbüttel and Hamburg, even though half of them were carrying dangerous goods.
The first step in setting up a rail business was to sign an agreement with the Rhein-Sieg Railway (RSE) in Bonn, which was able to supply Hoyer with motive power, wagons, train crew, shunters and railway expertise for the launch of a shuttle service. This began as a pilot project that soon proved a success, prompting Hoyer to take a majority share in RSE. Thus was born Hoyer-Railserv, which now hauls tank containers beyond Hamburg to the Bayer works in Dormagen, as well as traffic for other companies bound for Neuss. Hoyer’s ambition is to secure access to terminals on all major routes in Germany and to link them daily with container services.
Roger Rail
The market for motive power in Germany now comprises around 150 operators. Opening up the network has given regional operators a national and in some cases an international role, with new ventures achieving surprising successes. Among the most dynamic of the new entrants is the Karsdorfer Railway Co (KEG), which went in 10 years from a one-man band to a flourishing business with 50 locomotives and 170 staff. It has business units in Karsdorf and Zeitz in Sachsen-Anhalt, Stollberg in Sachsen, and at Schwerte and Rheine in Nordrhein-Westfalen.
KEG was the first of the new companies to join the UIC, and it recently set up a joint venture called Roger Rail with the Romanian-owned leasing company which possesses much of the rolling stock of the former Romanian State Railways. KEG plans to run and to lease Romanian electric locos in Germany, although this means they will have to be fitted with Germany train protection equipment and converted from 25 kV 50Hz to run under a 15 kV 16 2/3Hz power supply.
Roger Rail also plans to build locomotives for use in eastern Europe. Last year KEG worked up a financing concept with Deutsche Leasing AG in Frankfurt am Main and Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau. In January this year it acquired a Class 59 from the failed DB Cargo-Foster Yeoman joint venture, and this General Motors loco is currently hauling timber felled by Hurricane Lothar last Christmas for the Land of Baden-Württemberg to numerous destinations across Germany. KEG and Foster Yeoman are looking towards long-term co-operation, not just in Germany, but elsewhere in Europe.
The pools
Most of the 15 locomotives in the Adtranz pool are standard diesels that have been refurbished, but the pool also includes the prototype Blue Tiger diesel (RG 1.97. p25) and two Class 145 electric locos used by BASF; two more Class 145s are due to follow shortly. Earlier this year two Adtranz electric locos entered service with Häfen und Güterverkehr K
