Swietelsky to acquire Dual Mode Vectrons

Siemens has announced that the Austrian construction company Swietelsky has taken delivery of the first of the Vectron Dual Mode locomotives ordered and that it will also order these machines in 15 + 25 kV version in the future.

The first locomotive, 248 095, was handed over to the customer in March 2025, and the second one will follow in 2026. Four more are to follow with an additional order, the first of which is due in 2027. Of these, three will be in the new version designed to operate on 15 and 25 kV voltages, and thus enabling operation not only in Germany and Austria, but also with a view to approval in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.

Approval of the version in question for 15 and 25 kV and equipped with the MIREL VZ1 ATP is currently not expected before 2027. Swietelsky operates in rail traffic through its subsidiaries RTS Rail Transport Service and RTS Rail Transport Service Germany, the former (registered in Austria) being the operator in a number of countries.

The existing Vectron DMs can only operate in electric mode under 15 kV. The type in question has been approved without ETCS OBU, which allows normal deployment in Germany, but in Austria only on lines without the stationary ETCS and therefore basically off main lines. In this country, the operation of Vectron DMs is therefore minimal, and only with Stern & Hafferl Verkehrsgesellschaft. Approval in Germany was achieved in October 2020, in Austria in September 2022 (here is an interesting discrepancy between the weight of 86 t stated in the linked ERA document and the actual weight of 89 t written directly on the locomotive operated by StH). The full approval for Austria is expected in 2026.