ČD Will Hire Vectrons From Rolling Stock Lease

In order to provide haulage of the line R18 Praha - Zlín / Luhačovice / Veselí nad Moravou by Vectrons, ČD will hire six machines from Rolling Stock Lease. These are namely 193 695, 696, 698, 699, 769 and 963, which have been present in Bratislava since mid-December 2020. Here they are prepared for handover to the lessee, which includes, among other things, completing approval runs in those countries where the physical presence of individual locomotives is required for this purpose.

On the Praha - Staré Město u Uherského Hradiště services, these locomotives should replace the dual-voltage 3/15 kV Class 371 locomotives by 6 April 2021 at the latest, probably even earlier. The reason is that the contact point of the 3 kV DC and 25 kV 50 Hz voltages on the corridor between Břeclav and Přerov will be moved towards north by the infrastructure manager SŽ, resulting in the Class 371s being not able to run as far as Staré Město u Uh. Hradiště station, where majority of the R18 trains change for diesel traction.

Rolling Stock Lease is the new name of the former Bratislava-based company S Rail Lease, which leases Vectrons to the Slovak state operators ZSSK and ZSSK CARGO. The name was changed in connection with the change in the ownership structure. Later, ČD should hire seven more Vectrons from this company.