News

Hungarian railways have been struggling with a lack of funding in recent years. This is reflected, for example, in the fact that the only major ongoing project for the purchase of new passenger rail vehicles in Hungary is currently the order for FLIRTs for GYSEV.

In recent years, the Hungarian national operator has been trying to renew its fleet of locomotives.

The Association of European Rail Rolling stock Lessors (AERRL) presented on 21 January 2025 its Manifesto 2024 - 2029, highlighting the need for coordinated deployment of the ERTMS from a single BL3.4 release, and urging that the market for the procurement of new rolling stock should not be disrupted.

On 15 October 2024, European Locomotive Leasing has successfully closed a 250 million EUR financing round in the form of a Senior Secured CAPEX revolving credit facility over seven years.

An era in RegioJet's operations came to an end when the last of the Vectrons on long-term lease from ELL, 193 226, was returned on 14 July 2024.

Since mid-March, nightjet trains on the route Wien - Brussels and back have been operated without change of the locomotive.

On 20 February 2024, Vectron 193 962 of ÖBB/ELL made a test run from Germany to Schaarbeek on the normal nightjet route (via the old line between Leuven and Liège).

Recently, there has been a growing interest in leasing of Siemens Vectron locomotives from European Locomotive Leasing in the Czech Republic: the number of enquiries from Czech operators continues to grow and the reasons for this are explained in the following paragraphs by Christian Kern, Managing Director of ELL Austria.

On 30 November 2023, European Locomotive Leasing Group, based in Wien and München, and Siemens Mobility signed a framework agreement for the delivery of up to 200 further Vectron locomotives.

LTE is starting to enter the transport of Ukrainian grain too, and has been transporting Ukrainian ceramic clay for several months already.

On 20 May 2022, a new locomotive facility was inaugurated in Gramatneusiedl, known as LOCMASTA, an acronym derived from the words LOComotive MAintenance STAtion.

On 2 December 2021, Vectron 193 230 rented by FRACHTbahn Traktion from ELL Austria has been christened "Josef".

On 12 August 2021, ČD announced that the ten Vectrons leased from ELL had already reached a mileage of approximately 10 million kilometres.

On 6 May 2021, the FRACHTbahn’s first locomotive branded in the corporate design was symbolically “christened”.

In October 2019, FRACHTbahn Traktion (Freight Railway Traction) of Wien was established, whose founders were the Austrian entrepreneurs Hans Peter Haselsteiner and Erhard Grossnigg, who had previously founded WESTbahn in 2008.