Bombardier Hands Over the 399th Class 185 Locomotive to DB Schenker Rail

Yesterday, Bombardier Transportation handed over the 399th BOMBARDIER TRAXX AC locomotive to DB Schenker Rail at its Kassel site in Germany. The locomotive is part of an order from 1998 for the delivery of a total of 400 dual frequency AC locomotives.

The initial order led to the development of the world’s first fully-inclusive locomotive platform TRAXX. By now, the TRAXX locomotive is available as TRAXX AC (alternating current), TRAXX DC (direct current), TRAXX DE (diesel-electric) and TRAXX MS (multi-system). More than 1,400 locomotives have been ordered from this platform and over 1,200 already delivered to more than 14 countries as well as 18 European corridors for passenger and freight transport. Besides DB Schenker Rail, TRAXX customers also include many foreign state railways as well as private and leasing companies.

Otto Niederhofer from the management board at DB Schenker Rail said: “The class 185 and 186 are modern locomotives that play a vital role in our development of cross-border rail traffic.”

“In celebrating the handover of the 399th class 185 locomotive, we wish to express our profound gratitude to our customer, DB Schenker Rail. Their large order helped us to develop the TRAXX locomotive platform”, said Dr. Klaus Baur, Chairman of the Management Board, Bombardier Transportation Germany. “In line with today’s motto ‘A successful partnership for the future’, we do not consider the delivery of the final locomotive as the end of our partnership with DB Schenker Rail. We wish to remain a dependable partner and support our customer to meet their transport requirements.”

Accordingly, Bombardier has further developed its TRAXX platform over recent years. For example, in the sector for cross-border rail transportation, Bombardier has continuously extended its approvals for locomotives for new European networks and corridors. The European Train Control System, ETCS, has also been further developed for TRAXX locomotives, to make future European rail cooperation simpler and more cost-effective. Furthermore, all the locomotives can be equipped with BOMBARDIER ECO4 technologies, making future rail transport even more environmentally friendly and economical than before.