UK: ‘We believe that nobody will be buying a diesel train any more, be it a locomotive or a passenger train, and with our technology of bi-mode and, by adding batteries, tri-mode products we are certainly capable of providing the rolling stock that is needed’, Ralf Warwel, Marketing & Sales Director for the UK and Ireland, told Rail Business UK following the unveiling of the first Class 99 locomotive for GB Railfreight at the InnoTrans trade fair in Berlin.
Warwel added that he was ‘convinced that there will be further opportunities in the UK; basically because we have the decarbonisation strategy and to deliver this strategy we need to change some of the rolling stock that is already quite old’.
Stadler has already delivered bi-mode and multi-mode trains to the UK in the form of the battery-electric Class 777/1 units for Merseyrail, electro-diesel Class 755 trains for Greater Anglia and tri-mode Class 756 units for Transport for Wales.
‘There are indications that things are moving in the right direction with the rolling stock strategy’, he said. ‘Electrification needs to be done but battery trains can bridge the gap until that electrification is finally laid out.’
