The Full Service Leasing Company Mitsui Rail Capital Europe (MRCE) and Siemens have agreed to found a joint venture for the servicing and maintenance of locomotives. The agreement stipulates that Siemens and MRCE each will hold a 50-percent stake in the joint venture and jointly manage the new company. Founding of the firm, pending approval of antitrust authorities, is expected to be completed in the first half of calendar year 2018.
The Dutch company will be headquartered in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and be named Locomotive Workshop Rotterdam (LWR). Both partners are jointly investing in the joint venture, primarily to build a new workshop for locomotives. The groundbreaking ceremony is planned for the current calendar year. The new workshop is scheduled to open in the summer of 2019.
The location of the new workshop in the port of Rotterdam will enable rail operators to optimise their long-term planning of necessary service stops for locomotives on their routes. The port is an ideal location for servicing locomotives arriving from throughout Europe, and will eliminate long service transfer runs that cost time and money.
As the biggest seaport in Europe, Rotterdam is a key logistics hub in the European rail network. Each week, there are more than 250 intermodal rail connections in the port. Operations and service stops can thus be combined and coordinated with one another. The workshop will handle inspections, preventive and corrective maintenance work, which also can include simple repairs and upgrades.
Mitsui Rail Capital Europe (MRCE) operates the largest fleet of modern, cross-border-capable locomotives in Europe. The fleet consists of around 300 locomotives. The full-service locomotive leasing company combines leasing and maintenance management of locomotives. MRCE has strategically divided its headquarters in Amsterdam and Munich: Amsterdam is responsible for operations leasing, procurement, financing and the sale of locomotives, while Munich handles the technical support and maintenance of the locomotive fleet.
