Between the 5th – 7th of June 2023, the northeastern Czech town of Ostrava hosted a regional trade fair, Rail Business Days. On the outdoor rolling stock display area, manufacturers presented their most recent units for rail freight and passenger operators in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Siemens Mobility has brought its Vectron Dual Mode, which has been tested in Czechia by Unipetrol Doprava, ČD Cargo, and, most recently, LokoTrain. There were more Vectron locomotives on display. Infrastructure company Správa železnic displayed its Vectron, and ČD Cargo has officially welcomed one of its two recent AC versions of Vectron locomotives in its fleet here.
The operator also displayed CZ LOKO’s 50th modernised EffiShunter 1000M.
ČD Telematika and ČD had a retrofitted Class 363 locomotive with ETCS installed on display too.
The most interesting rolling stock was on the passenger operators’ side. Škoda Group has officially presented its RegioPanter EMU for České dráhy (ČD). This three-car unit is the first to be put into operation on the Ostrava – Opava line and is part of an order for 60 units from ČD.
ČD has also welcomed its first RegioFox unit, which is a Polish Pesa Regio160 DMU. The operator has ordered 76 of these two-car units for Prague, Středočeský, Jihočeský, Pardubický and Vysočina regions.
Pesa has another customer in Czechia, Regiojet, which operates the same platform of units, but in a different design and running under the catenary. The first out of seven of these units started the operation around Ústí nad Labem in the country’s north.
The last rolling stock from Pesa was its hydrogen shunting locomotive, presented at the TRAKO fair in Poland two years ago for the first time.
The biggest revelation was the first presentation of the Stadler KISS double-deck EMU for Slovakian operator ZSSK. Four of these six-car units, each with a capacity exceeding 600 seats, will be manufactured in Poland and will operate on the lines from the capital Bratislava to Žilina, Břeclav (CZ) and Nové Zámky.
