Swietelsky with Siemens Mobility Vectron Dual Mode Locomotives for Eastern Europe soon highly flexible

• Swietelsky AG takes over first Vectron Dual Mode Locomotive
• Premiere: Four more Vectron Dual Mode locomotives ordered, three of them with country corridor approval for Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria

The internationally active construction company Swietelsky AG has taken over the first Vectron Dual Mode locomotive from Siemens Mobility in March. The vehicle is approved for the German and, starting next year, for the Austrian rail network; the delivery of another locomotive with these approval packages will take place next year. Against this positive backdrop, Swietelsky has now ordered four more Vectron Dual Mode locomotives from the existing framework agreement, three with approvals for Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. In total, the fleet will therefore consist of six vehicles in the future. The first vehicle from the additional order is expected to be delivered in early 2027. This will allow Swietelsky to handle railway construction projects in the CEE region and the associated logistics particularly flexibly, powerfully, and environmentally friendly in the future.

The Vectron Dual Mode enables efficient cross-border traffic without locomotive changes, which further enhances Swietelsky's performance and competitiveness while significantly reducing the cost base. The Vectron Dual Mode locomotive features a fully-fledged electric and a diesel drive with 2,400 kW.

 

Peter Krammer, CEO and COO Railway Construction, Swietelsky AG: “Railway construction is one of the strategically most important growth drivers for SWIETELSKY – both for our company and as a contribution to climate-friendly, future-proof mobility in Europe. We are consistently continuing our expansion course in railway infrastructure construction. Two things are always crucial for sustainable success: the excellent know-how of our employees and an innovative, high-performance fleet of machines. With the Vectron Dual Mode locomotives, we are creating the conditions to implement demanding railway construction projects efficiently and environmentally friendly in the future.”

 

Tanja Kienegger, CEO Siemens Mobility Austria: “The modern Vectron Dual Mode offers the highest flexibility in cross-border rail traffic. As a hybrid locomotive, it combines the advantages of a fully-fledged diesel locomotive with those of electric locomotives and operates at full power even where there is no overhead line. Thus, we combine economic efficiency and sustainability, and Europe is coming closer together on the environmentally friendly rail.”

 

Climate-friendly freight transport with maximum flexibility

The Vectron Dual Mode is a concrete contribution to more environmental protection: On electrified routes, environmentally friendly rail power is used. Only on sections without electric overhead lines does it automatically switch to diesel operation. This flexibility is essential in Eastern European countries as well as here at home: Diesel trains also cover an average of 60 to 80 percent of their journey on electrified routes in Austria – only because the electric overhead wire is missing on the last kilometers of the route. Even small electrification gaps lead to high CO₂ emissions, which can easily be avoided with the Vectron Dual Mode. Even in diesel operation, sustainability is taken into account with the locomotive, as a modern exhaust gas recirculation system is used, which does not require the injection of urea for exhaust gas treatment.

From an economic perspective, the Vectron Dual Mode generates high fleet homogeneity due to its flexible usability, resulting in internal efficiency gains in employee training, maintenance costs, and other cost factors. Modularized common parts such as frontend, driver's cab, braking equipment, and control technology ensure uniform operability and controllability as well as optimized life cycle costs.

 

Game Changer Vectron Dual Mode for international rail transport

The fact that the locomotives are now also approved for the international transport corridors - the countries of Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria - significantly expands the area of application. Complicated, time-consuming, and costly locomotive changes at the borders are avoided, making the fleet flexible in CEE.