The Swedish national rail freight haulier has long-term leased 10 Vectron locomotives, five apiece from Akiem and Alpha Trains, for its Sweden-Germany traffic.

The plan is for all the Vectrons to run between Malmö and Maschen starting in 2024. Before the demand grows, some of the new locos will operate in southern Sweden in the region of Skåne.

The first one is initially used as a training locomotive across the Malmö-Trelleborg service.

The six locomotives currently serving the Malmö-Maschen corridor will be reintegrated into Green Cargo's Swedish network.

The Vectrons will be equipped with European Train Control System, a condition for running them in Denmark.

"The locomotives will primarily mean that the traffic quality increases for our customers in international traffic as we strengthen operational reliability and redundancy on the locomotive side compared to today. The new locomotives also give us the opportunity to expand our international traffic," Marcus Wiklund, Project Manager for Vectron locomotives at Green Cargo, said.

He furthered, "The Vectron is a locomotive highly appreciated by the drivers who have test-driven it and is well adapted to corridor traffic. Technically and equipment-wise, you can drive it seamlessly all the way between Norway and Austria. We also get access to good and fast maintenance opportunities in both Germany and Sweden, which is also an important aspect in this context."

"All in all, these new locomotives represent an important reinforcement of both quality and capacity for Green Cargo's international traffic with positive effects for our domestic network as well," Wiklund summed up.

Photo: Green Cargo