Rhenus purchases three new locos from Bombardier

The Rhenus Group has purchased three new electric TRAXX locomotives from the manufacturer Bombardier for its rail freight traffic. Visitors to this year’s "transport logistic" trade fair in Munich will be able to inspect one of the freight locos there. The new locomotives enhance the logistics specialist’s fleet of modern vehicles.

The special features about the TRAXX locomotives are that they can cope with all four power supply voltage systems in continental Europe, they have a modular design and can be configured for different countries. The new locos are set to be used on Rhenus’ main operating routes between Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, including the German border region with Switzerland, as well as between the Benelux countries and south-east Europe.

"We have a long-term outlook and would like to increase our fleet of vehicles. The TRAXX locomotives are ideally suited to our requirements, particularly for services to and from Belgium. There are already many comparable Bombardier locos in our fleets, so that we can also make use of a good network in our service concept as regards preventive and corrective maintenance," says Michael Viefers, a Member of the Rhenus Board; he accepted the new locomotive from Bombardier on 11 May 2017.

The TRAXX multi-system locomotives have a rating of 5.6 MW and develop tractive effort of 300 kilonewtons. They can reach speeds of up to 140 km/h. Rhenus can use these TRAXX-F140-MS locos in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.

"We’re delighted to be able to hand over to our customer Rhenus the first of the new TRAXX multi-system locos on order. Rhenus can count on these very reliable locos with high availability rates, as the company expands its activities in its core regions," says Albert Bastius, Head of Locomotives, Bombardier Transportation. The loco that will be on display will be used for the freight services operated by Rhenus Rail after the end of the trade fair. Bombardier is due to hand over two more locos to Rhenus on 17 May.