During summer 2024, CARGOUNIT, the leading rolling stock leasing company from Central and Eastern Europe, leased more locomotives on the Romanian market. After initially leasing Siemens Smartron locomotives 192 010 and 011 to Unicom Tranzit, now there have been two more locomotives leased to Transferoviar Group (TFG) from Cluj, namely 192 016 and 017.
Later this year, two more Smartrons will be delivered to another Romanian client, Tim Rail Cargo from Timisoara, as CEO of CARGOUNIT, Łukasz Boroń, revealed to Railmarket News.
At this occasion, we also asked about the ROSCO’s experience with Smartron locomotives: “Smartron locomotives are in our opinion a reliable and cost-efficient solution for AC markets such as Romania and Bulgaria. Smartron shares a number of parts with Vectron and this is smart option to extend portfolio without adding a completely new locomotive type,” says Łukasz Boroń.
How does he evaluate the Romanian rail market? “Romanian market is quite similar to the Polish market in terms of advance of the rail freight market liberalization, large number of private rail freight operators, growing intermodal and agricultural products transport due to the shift of transport corridors from Ukraine and an aged fleet of locomotives which requires replacement. What makes this market attractive is a more liberalized passenger transport unlike in Poland which is lagging with the passenger market liberalization behind Romania. The economy has been growing at a dynamic pace and we see increased willingness of operators to swap old electric locomotives for modern locomotives. Unfortunately, the quality of the infrastructure is poor in Romania and low commercial speed of freight trains does not allow to make best use of modern locomotives which could make more mileage on annual basis and increase efficiency,” summarizes the CEO of CARGOUNIT.
The company has 14 more Smartron locomotives on fixed order from Siemens Mobility, and more can be called-off from the newest framework agreement with the manufacturer for 100 Vectron platform locomotives, which includes Smartrons too.
For potential interested customers, CARGOUNIT has a permanent agent in Romania who serves the needs of local clients. All rail operators can express an interest by sending an inquiry on [email protected].
