Traxx Universal: Alstom’s locomotive for Europe goes from strength to strength

Alstom’s Traxx™ locomotives for Europe are trending. In 2023, the company signed several major contracts for its third-generation locos, followed by an order in January 2024 from ARF, Romania, with 20 years of associated maintenance services. And there’s more in the pipeline. What’s behind the success? We had a quick chat with Adrian Kurz, Market & Portfolio Director Locomotives, and Rolf Schreiber, Product Director Traxx locomotives for Europe.

Recently, Alstom has won a lot of new contracts for Traxx locomotives in Europe. How do you explain this success?

Rolf Schreiber: Alstom had a very successful order intake for Traxx mainline locomotives in Europe last year, specifically for the Poland to France[1] and France to Italy[2] rail corridors. The Traxx Universal platform offers powerful, reliable locomotives with improved technical performance and maintenance. This is important for all operators, who need to manage their operational costs very carefully. Our locomotives provide a maximum power of 6.4 MW and are capable of pulling trains with a very high tractive effort of up to 340 kN, which allows customers to pull more wagons. As they say, it takes a lot of wagons to make a profit!

Adrian Kurz: Equipping our locomotives with Alstom’s proven signalling system Onvia™, formerly Atlas, has helped to secure the trust of our customers. Onvia™ is the leading onboard solution for ETCS and country-specific “Class B” signalling systems, meaning our locomotives are suitable for both single-country as well as on corridor (multiple-country) applications.

Click here to read the full article on the Alstom website.

[1] France, Germany, Poland and additional countries
[2] France, Italy and additional countries