Siemens hands over two Vectron locomotives to DB Schenker Rail Polska

Siemens today handed over two of 23 ordered locomotives to DB Schenker Rail Polska S.A. in Warsaw, Poland. Delivery is due to be completed by early 2015. The two Vectron units were received by Michael Hetzer, COO DB Schenker Rail Polska, and Markus Hunkel, Member of the Management Board of DB Schenker Rail, from Marek Bielski, Management Board of Siemens Poland, responsible for the Infrastructure & Cities Sector, and Karl- Hermann Klausecker, CEO Locomotives and Components. Siemens had received the order in early December. It also includes an option for the purchase of 13 more units.

DB Schenker Rail Polska, the largest private rail cargo operator in Poland, wants to use the vehicles for the transportation of cargo in Poland. For this reason, the Vectron was designed for operation in the Polish DC power system and equipped with the proper train protection system. In the context of the certification process, the Vectron DC had already been tested in Poland for almost a year in trial runs for various operators in the Polish rail network. The locomotives had also been running in supervised operation at DB Schenker Rail during the certification activities.

The certification runs were carried out using two Vectron DC on Polish rail. The locomotive 193 951 was operated by DB Schenker Rail Polska and ITL. Its sister unit 193 952 was used for the same purpose by PKP IC at a maximum speed of 160 km/h in intercity traffic between Warsaw and Krakow. Both locomotives together have run a total of more than 80,000 kilometers in Poland.

The new Vectron locomotive generation had received the open-ended certificate for Poland for the new 3 kV DC version in September. This marked the second national certification for the Vectron in Europe, following the open-ended certificate received in Romania. Preliminary certification has already been obtained for Sweden. The certification runs have already been completed for Germany, as have the network access runs for Austria. Certification activities are also ongoing for Switzerland, Italy and The Netherlands.

Technical details of the Vectron DC for DB Schenker Rail Polska