České dráhy Has Already Obtained All Vectrons Planned for This Year

At the beginning of this week, České dráhy has taken over two more Siemens Vectron locomotives from the RSL leasing company. It means that this year’s plan, which counted on the delivery of 12 locomotives, has been fulfilled. Another 22 new Vectrons will be delivered by the leasing company to České dráhy in 2024. This will mean fulfilment of the entire framework contract for the lease of up to 50 modern interoperable locomotives produced by Siemens Mobility.

“We are intensively continuing to prepare for the introduction of exclusive ETCS operation on our corridors. In addition to retrofits on existing vehicles, we are also acquiring new locomotives and units which are already factory-equipped for ETCS-supervised operation. Our plan includes also the acquisition of new Siemens Vectron locomotives. After the takeover of the delivery of the last locomotives planned this year, we are now operating 39 of them and we plan to take delivery of another 22 locomotives in 2024. From 1 January 2025 we will thus cover the need for operation on all corridors operated under the exclusive supervision of ETCS,” says Michal Krapinec, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Director General of České dráhy, about the takeover of the new Siemens Vectron locomotives.

“Right from the beginning of the new timetable 2024, we have prepared 34 turnaround days for the Siemens Vectron locomotives and this class will travel over 32,000 kilometres in our service every day. This distance accounts for three quarters of the length of the equator around the Earth, for example. The largest daily runs of the Vectron locomotives exceed 1,300 kilometres and we run them from Flensburg on the German-Danish border to Budapest,” comments Jiří Ješeta, Member of the ČD Board of Directors and Deputy Director General for Passenger Transport, on the deployment of the Siemens Vectron locomotives.

The 193.574 and 193.578 locomotives newly taken over will still take part in the pre-Christmas traffic and will be included in the circulation plans together with other Vectrons. České dráhy currently operates a total of 39 Siemens Vectron locomotives. Ten locomotives are leased from the ELL company, 28 locomotives are leased from RSL and one locomotive is owned by České dráhy. The locomotives are “at home” in the Prague depot in Vršovice. The locomotives on lease from ELL which have been operated for the longest time have also the highest mileage. On average, each of them accounts for 1.7 million kilometres, while the most active ones have exceeded the mileage of 1.8 million kilometres.

České dráhy uses the Siemens Vectron locomotives in long-distance transport on the Berliner services from Prague to Flensburg, Kiel, Hamburg and Berlin, Canopus to Leipzig, Metropolitan to Budapest, on the Západní express, Krušnohor and Slovácký expres trains from Prague via Plzeň to Cheb, from Cheb to Ústí nad Labem and from Ústí nad Labem to Prague, as well as from Prague to Staré Město u UH. The locomotives also run at the head of the Prague – Ostrava – Žilina, Bohumín – Warsaw or Budapest – Břeclav – Bohumín – Warsaw trains.

The Siemens Vectron locomotives have a maximum speed of 200 km/h and a power output of 6.4 MW. They are designed for operation on railway lines with 3 kV DC, 25 kV 50 Hz AC and 15 kV 16.7 Hz AC traction systems. They are equipped with the ETCS train control system and GSM-R radio communication system. České dráhy operates them on national lines and on connection services to Germany, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary. In addition to the leased locomotives, the company has ordered another 50 locomotives to its ownership from Siemens Mobility in the version for a speed of 230 km/h.