News

Like other European countries, also Finland is preparing to introduce ERTMS.

Many operators are facing the difficult problem of upgrading or retrofitting the ETCS OBUs (On-Board Units) to their Taurus locomotives. Moreover, the same is true for the railjet non-traction multiple units (NMUs) of ÖBB and ČD.

Recently, for the first time, the on-board ETCS was retrofitted to the TRAXX locomotives already in service without the involvement of the manufacturer of these locomotives.

In early August, another nightjet for ÖBB arrived at the VUZ Velim test centre.

On 20 June 2023 Alstom announced that a new important step has been taken in the integration of the Atlas onboard ETCS to the TRAXX locomotive platform.

On 1 November 2022, the contract for the retrofit of the on-board ETCS in 78 Class 163 and 363 locomotives of ČD Cargo was completed with a ceremonial act at Plzeň main station.

On 19 October 2022, Alstom has signed a framework agreement worth around 900 million EUR with Rete Ferroviaria Italiana to design, deliver and commission an ERTMS on a large scale in Italy.

Hrochostroj (part of the enteria group) has become the second Czech company operating in the railway construction industry to decide to acquire its own locomotive, the EffiShunter 1000.

On 31 January 2022, it was announced that Vectrons can run under ETCS supervision on selected sections of the Czech network.

On 29 September 2021, Siemens Mobility and Vossloh Locomotives signed an agreement to equip the latter’s Type DM 20-EBB locomotives with on-board ETCS Level 2.

77 locomotives belonging to Alpha Trains will be upgraded to ETCS Baseline 3 Release 2.

On 18 December 2020, Bombardier Transportation and Railpool have announced the signature of a contract for an ETCS OBU from Baseline 2 to Baseline 3 upgrade for 73 of Railpool’s TRAXX MS2 locomotives.

On 18 March 2020, the locomotive 163.022 was handed over to ČD Cargo, which was the first of the operator’s 3 kV DC Class 163 to be equipped with the on-board ETCS.