03/14/2003

SNCF increasingly opting for Vossloh locomotives

Another order for the sole foreign supplier

The French railway company SNCF is increasingly opting for diesel locomotives built by Kiel-based Vossloh Schienenfahrzeugtechnik GmbH (VSFT). Eight Vossloh G 1206 models are already operating on the French rail network and now SNCF has ordered another 15 of this successful pan-European locomotive. The company leases the locomotives from Locomotion Capital nv /sa, Antwerp, the biggest lessor of locomotives on the European continent. VSFT has been contracted to carry out the servicing work. The delivery of these 15 units, of which Vossloh had budgeted only about a half, will take place before the end of this year. The total value is almost €25 million. Additionally, SNCF has secured for itself the options on another 25 locomotives of this type at a value of around €40 million.
Vossloh is now the only company outside of France to supply locomotives to the French state railways. The G 1206 allows cross-border traffic between France and Germany and hence as part of a joint project between SNCF and DB (German rail), for the first time in over 150 years of rail history, freight trains will be traveling between the two countries without switching locomotives and the resultant lengthy waiting times at the borders. SNCF chief officer Louis Gallois reckons that rail-bound goods trade between these nations presently at a modest 12 percent, might well race to over 20 percent.

Kiel/Werdohl, March 14, 2003For more information contact:
Werner Andree, Vossloh AG, phone (+49-2392) 52407