ZSSK Cargo has opened a public tender to lease 15 Siemens Vectron MS locomotives with a 10-year full-service agreement, along with an option for 15 more.
The information was brought by a Slovak rail media page Railpage.net. The call replicates ZSSK's earlier tender from 2024, with delivery of the first five units expected by March 2026. A further five are scheduled for delivery by the end of that year, and the final five by December 2027. All units must be newly built from 2025 onwards.
The operator specifies the A17 version of the Vectron, certified for operation in SK, CZ, DE, AT, PL, HU, SI, HR, RS, and RO. ZSSK Cargo currently operates 383.201–210, which conform to the same configuration.
To qualify, bidders must provide proof of supplying multi-system locomotives on a long-term lease for use in these countries, which narrows eligibility to a small group of experienced providers.
The evaluation criteria include:
- Monthly lease rate (60 points),
- Per-kilometre surcharge over 220,000 km annually (10 points),
- Total downtime over 10 years due to maintenance (10 points),
- Distance from maintenance site to the Bratislava East depot (10 points),
- Kilometres already run on each unit at handover (10 points).
Deadline for submissions is 22 September 2025.
