DB Schenker orders 23 locomotives from Siemens

Siemens has received an order for 23 electric locomotives from DB Schenker Rail Polska S.A., a Polish subsidiary of the European DB Schenker Rail Europe and the largest private rail freight company in Poland. This is the largest order Siemens has received so far for its Vectron locomotive generation. “This is already the third order for our newly developed locomotive platform. A particularly pleasing aspect is that we were also able to secure an option for a further 13 locomotives,” said Jochen Eickholt, CEO of Rail Systems. The customer intends to deploy the vehicles for freight services in Poland. Shipment of the 23 vehicles will commence immediately and is due to be completed by 2015. The order value for these locomotives is in the high double-digit million range.

With the new Vectron locomotive, Siemens is offering a product for passenger and freight transport that has been designed to meet increasingly variable requirements and perform transport tasks in Europe. The version for DB Schenker Rail Polska has been designed for operation on the Polish DC network and has been fitted with the corresponding train protection equipment. During its certification in Poland, the Vectron underwent almost a year of trials with various operators on the Polish network. Siemens received certification for the vehicles in September 2012.

Siemens will manufacture the locomotives to the highest quality standards at its Munich plant using cutting-edge production technology. For example, the steel construction components will be produced using innovative laser-hybrid welding equipment to allow consistently high carbody structure quality.

DB Schenker Rail Polska has decided in favor of Siemens Vectron Central Stock concept to ensure the supply of spare parts. This enables spare parts to be delivered within 24 hours, thus ensuring a high level of availability at the customer’s depot. All orders can be placed online in the Siemens “RailMall” webshop.

The Vectron family consists of single and multi-system locomotives for the European AC and DC networks for fast passenger services as well as interoperable cross-border freight services. These versions allow for operation on four different line voltage systems and in various performance classes. The development focused not only on investment protection, environmental compatibility and flexibility, but also on ease of retrofitting and conversion, with the trains also able to be adapted for other national protection systems. The components in the machine room have been arranged so as to make optimum use of the space available. For example, there was room to house a shunting module to permit operation on track sections with no overhead contact line.