AITX On The European Market

AITX (American Industrial Transport, Inc.) is an established wagon leasing, repair and maintenance provider in the USA, but in May 2023 it announced its entry into the European market. It operates through Paris-based AITX Rail Europe, in cooperation with other companies from the group, namely with the already established investment company ITE Management and Eurra2 Limited, the latter founded in early 2022 and based in Dublin. Currently, AITX Rail Europe already operates leases 26 of Class Sggnss XLs wagons, and has also ordered 30 Class Tagnpps wagons with a volume of 95 m³ for transport cereals.

Both of these types are products of Tatravagónka, the former being the latest version of its successful and established non-articulated 80ft intermodal wagon. This time it has only a slight modification compared to the previous XL version, namely a shortening from 25,940 mm to 25,860 mm. The loading scheme remains unchanged from the XL version, while the XL features a more rigid construction allowing for a greater variety of loading schemes and a heavier load in the middle of the wagon compared to the standard Sggnss version.

XLs deliveries began in October 2023, when this version completely replaced the XL in Tatravagónka production. The first customer was MFD Rail, followed by AITX and METRANS. Tatravagónka has 400 orders for 2024.