EUROPE: Railpool has completed the upgrade of all of its locomotives used in Scandinavia to ETCS Baseline 3.4.
The leasing company has a total of 60 electric locomotives in service in Scandinavia. It worked with manufacturer Alstom and BS Verkstäder to upgrade 32 Traxx 2 AC locomotives and eight Traxx 3 AC locomotives, supported by funding from the EU’s Connecting Europe Facility.
A further 20 Traxx 3 AC locomotives were factory-fitted when purchased during the last two years.
‘ETCS removes hurdles in the rail network — in Scandinavia and elsewhere’, said Railpool CEO Torsten Lehnert on March 3. ‘By upgrading our entire fleet in the north, we stand out as an example of a future-proof rail system. As a result, our customers can rely on our locomotives to get them wherever they need to be.’
Raillpool is a member of the Association of European Rail Rolling Stock Lessors, which issued a manifesto in January calling for the more co-ordinated deployment of ERTMS using the ETCS Baseline 3.4 release to avoid market fragmentation leading to inefficiencies.
