HUNGARY: State railway group MÁV-Volán has signed a long-term agreement to lease a further 13 diesel locomotives formerly owned by Denmark’s DSB from Swedish leasing company Nordic Re-Finance. They will be used by MÁV-Start and MÁV Rail Tours.
In 2020-22 Nordic Re-Finance acquired the remaining 32 Henschel Class ME locomotives from DSB which had replaced them with Siemens Mobility Vectron electric locos as part of Denmark’s electrification programme. The leasing company designated them as Class TME, and supplied several for operation in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Poland.
An initial two locos were leased to Hungary in September, and are now being used for staff training. The additional locos will be supplied on a dry lease from the first half of 2025, with MÁV-Volán being responsible for obtaining approval for their use in Hungary and all maintenance throughout the lease period.
‘In Central Europe, electrification of the railway is not as widely developed as in Sweden’, explained Nordic Re-Finance CEO Sven Engquist on December 3. ‘At the same time, we know that development in emission free alternatives is progressing rapidly, so purchasing new diesel locomotives was not an option for MÁV. By renting the locomotives from us on a long-term basis, they are able to acquire an entirely new fleet of sufficient size to justify investing in driver and workshop training for a new vehicle type.’
