EUROPE: Swiss locomotive leasing company European Loc Pool is to seek certification of its Stadler EuroDual locomotives for operation in Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro.
The company announced on April 20 that it was working with Stadler Rail Valencia and local partners to conduct test runs and validate the EuroDual’s compatibility with local infrastructure and national requirements.
The test runs are scheduled to take place in June and July and if successful, approval would be sought from the EU Agency for Railways. ELP hopes that the process could be completed before the end of the year.
‘The characteristics of the railway infrastructure in southeast Europe create perfect conditions for the deployment of the EuroDual locomotive: a combination of challenging steep sections with demanding curves is interspersed with non-electrified sections of railway corridors’, said Ľubomír Dlábik, ELP’s Sales Account Manager responsible for southeast Europe. ‘Even with such challenging conditions, the six-axle EuroDual with a tractive effort of 500 kN, with 2·8 MW of diesel traction power and over 6 MW of electric traction power can cope.’
‘ELP sees enormous potential in the developing markets of southeastern Europe and will expand the existing homologation for Germany and Austria with the Balkan region’, added Chief Commercial Officer Emiel Knarren.
