This means that both freight and passenger trains can run along the entire corridor without changing locomotives. The first to take advantage of this is Swedish rail operator Snälltåget, which has leased three Vectron locomotives from European Locomotive Leasing (ELL) for cross-border passenger services in Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Austria.
The Vectron, built at the Siemens Mobility plant in Munich-Allach, is the first locomotive equipped with the ETCS train control system to be approved for the 16-kilometre Öresund link (bridge and tunnel) between Sweden and Denmark. The locomotive uses the globally proven Trainguard 100/200/300 ETCS on-board unit from Siemens.
"Our highly flexible Vectron locomotives enable sustainable cross-border rail transport and make an open Europe a reality on rails," said Albrecht Neumann, CEO Rolling Stock at Siemens Mobility. "We are particularly pleased that the Vectron locomotive has opened up the Scandinavian corridor for the first time."
To date, Siemens Mobility has sold more than 1,700 Vectrons to 63 customers in 16 countries, and the fleet has already clocked up more than 700 million kilometres in service. Locomotives based on the Vectron platform are currently approved for operation in 20 European countries.
