Helrom expands into Romania and completes restructuring
posted on 23rd Feb 2026 10:55
Helrom has added Romania to its network of connections. From 10 February 2026, it operates five pairs of weekly connections between its main terminal in Düsseldorf-Reisholz and the AFLUENT Arad South Terminal. Following the Düsseldorf-Zabrze line launched on 29 September 2025 (six pairs per wee), Helrom is now serving another country to the east.
At the same time, however, there have been several changes, with operations being negatively affected by long-term closures, which from 6 February 2026, until the timetable change in December 2026, will make it impossible to run between Germany and Austria via Passau. On the diversion route via Freilassing - Salzburg, DB InfraGo only allowed a shorter train length, which meant that Helrom had to shorten the trains routed there from 20 wagons to 17, reducing the capacity of the trains from 40 to 34 semi-trailers. The increase in costs due to the longer route was thus accompanied by a significant reduction in revenue.
This even led to the complete cancellation of the Regensburg - Lébény (near Győr) line, introduced in April 2024 for forwarding company Duvenbeck, for the transport of car parts for the Audi car manufacturer. Given the starting point in Regensburg, the diversion route would have been too long, with an impact on costs and transport time.
In light of these complications and the launch of the line to Arad, Helrom completely changed the routing of its lines in this direction. In the fall of 2025, it was still operating the Düsseldorf - Wien and Köln-Westkai - Budapest lines (which had been rerouted from Düsseldorf in the fall of 2025). Both of these were canceled and replaced by the Düsseldorf - Arad line and the new Düsseldorf - Lébény line, introduced at the beginning of February, with a frequency of five pairs per week, increasing to six departures per week just one week later. In addition to the above, Helrom continues to operate the Düsseldorf - Trento line (6 pairs per week).
On all lines, trains are operated without traction change by one of the Vectrons hired by Helrom, and outside Germany, Austria, and Hungary, under the license of a partner carrier, which is LTG Cargo Polska in Poland, EVM Rail in Italy, and now PSP Cargo Group in Romania.
Last year, Helrom became insolvent and began restructuring, which included searching for a new strategic partner and financial investor. This process was successfully completed at the beginning of this year. As part of this process, London-based Helrom Holding Ltd., a subsidiary of HRG, and Greenbrier Companies became shareholders, with the former being the main shareholder with a 95% stake.
