Munich-based rolling stock leasing company Railpool has announced a deal to deliver 50 Traxx Universal MS locomotives. Alstom will produce them in Kassel, and they can operate in 8 countries: France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Belgium, Luxemburg and Poland. With Alstom Atlas ETCS on board, these locomotives will join the fight for customers needing to transport goods to and from France – among other countries in the package. France has for now been more isolated, with Siemens only now getting Vectron approved for this country – and now both manufacturing rivals will battle for this market.
Installing the Atlas system in the MS Traxx locomotives is finally the dealbreaker that restarts the competition between two major four-axle electric locomotive manufacturers in Europe. While the past few years were dominated by Siemens with its Vectron platform, now the scales are becoming more levelled with new orders for Traxx Universal. A week ago, Akiem announced the framework contract for 100 locomotives (firmly ordering 65), while Northral ordered 15 Traxxes Universal at the beginning of July 2023 (with an option for 35 more). With these amounts ordered, the usual price for a single locomotive is 5.2 million EUR.
