Last RSL Vectron for ČD handed over

On 8 October 2024, RS Lease officially handed over to ČD the last of the 50 Vectrons ordered by the operator for lease. Michal Krapinec, CEO of ČD, says: "Taking over the 50th locomotive from RS Lease represents one of the significant milestones in the renewal of our locomotive fleet. It will enable us to start full operation under ETCS supervision from 1 January 2025 on selected corridors, to serve international routes to their destination stations and to replace most of the ageing older locomotives. At the end, we will operate more than 100 of these locomotives after the delivery of 50 Siemens Vectrons with a top speed of 230 km/h, which we have ordered directly from Siemens Mobility."

Tibor Čunderlík, RS Lease director, adds: "We started our cooperation with ČD in 2021 with the delivery of the first 6 locomotives. This was followed in 2022 with the delivery of 10 ones and in 2023, when we leased 12 Vectrons to ČD. The series culminates this year when we handed over a total of 22 Vectrons to ČD. In cooperation with service partners, one of which is ČD, we provide comprehensive maintenance of these locomotives. Their intensive use is also evidenced by the fact that the machines delivered in 2021 are now reaching 1 million km."

ČD now has a total of 61 Vectrons - in addition to those from RSL, there are ten machines from the ELL and one Vectron of its own (193 902).

In the 2025 timetable, by ČD will be diagrammed 49 Vectrons, which will run more than 47,000 km per day. In addition to domestic routes, they will also operate international services, with destinations such as Hamburg, Kiel, Warsaw, Košice, Žilina and Budapest. After the deployment of ComfortJets on the Vindobona route, they will also go to Wien and Graz. The acquisition of the Vectrons will enable the Class 151 and 371 locomotives to be phased out and the Class 380 locomotives to be replaced on the line from Praha to Budapest.