16.01.09
Stadler and RhB cooperate in vehicle overhauls
(Chur/Bussnang) The Rhaetian Railway (RhB) and Stadler Rail have agreed to cooperate in the business of vehicle-overhaul and repairs of metre-gauge vehicles. Stadler will have part of the work in the inspection and overhaul carried out by the RhB. Stadler Rail and RhB have already successfully carried out various projects in cooperation in the past.
Initial situation
Stadler Rail wants to guarantee its customers a professional and comprehensive service, both following the delivery of the vehicles and during their complete service life. This so-called 3R-business includes major overhauls (refits), minor overhauls (after approx. 5 – 8 years) and repair work on vehicles.
In order to operate this 3R-business over the long term, a competent team that has both knowledge and experience with the individual vehicle models is required on the one hand, and a sufficiently high volume of work to keep the employees constantly working to capacity on the other. The latter point represents a very special challenge for smaller vehicle fleets. With a partnership, the cyclical variations in the volume of work can be compensated more easily, the quality will be better safeguarded and the different requirements can be met more easily. Stadler Rail and the RhB have therefore decided to operate the 3R-business for Stadler vehicles for narrow-gauge railways jointly in the future, and to thereby profit from synergies. This cooperation is based on the very good experiences that the two companies gained in the joint handling of the contracts for OSE (12 narrow-gauge diesel-electric articulated railcars for the Greek National Railway in 03/04) and Veolia (20 diesel-electric articulated railcars for the Netherlands in 06/07).
3R: Refit tasks, inspections and repairs on vehicles
The cooperation between the RhB and Stadler foresees that Stadler should act as the general contractor with regard to the customer in the first 10 years following the delivery of the vehicles. Stadler is also responsible for the engineering, while the manufacture will be carried out by the RhB. Both companies will therefore profit equally from this cooperation: The RhB will obtain additional contracts for its workshops, while Stadler can continue to support its customers beyond the vehicle delivery. A classic „Win-Win situation” thereby arises for the two companies. The rack railway vehicles and the bogies are not part of the agreement, and remain with Stadler Rail.
Rhaetian Railway
The RhB links together the whole of the canton of Graubünden/Grisons like a red ribbon. Its premium products „Glacier Express“, „Bernina Express“ and „UNESCO World Heritage – Rhaetian Railway in the Albula/Bernina landscape“ are known all over the world. In order to improve its competitiveness, the RhB has decided on a growth strategy. With its Strategy Offensive 2012, the RhB has set clear goals with regard to growth in the third-market business of rolling stock. A high level of recognition and the available expertise of the workshops in the area of rolling stock maintenance and renewal makes it possible for the workshops to acquire attractive and complex contracts. The RhB already carried out an order on behalf of Stadler Rail for the Dutch Veolia Transport AG in 2007. The contract comprised the installation and assembly of a total of 20 end units for standard-gauge railcars.
Stadler Rail
Stadler Rail Group, the system provider for customised solutions in rail vehicle manufacture, has locations in Switzerland (Altenrhein, Bussnang and Winterthur), in Germany (Berlin-Pankow and Velten), in Poland (Siedlce), in Hungary (Budapest, Pusztascabolcz and Szolnok), as well as in Algeria (Algiers). More than 2,200 people are employed group-wide. The best-known vehicle families of the Stadler Rail Group are the GTW articulated railcar (440 trains sold), the Regio Shuttle RS1 (364 trains sold) and the FLIRT (514 trains sold) in the complete trains sector, and the Variobahn (245 vehicles sold) and the newly developed Tango (90 vehicles sold) in the streetcar sector. In addition, Stadler manufactures passenger coaches and diesel electric locomotives, and is the leading manufacturer of rack railway vehicles worldwide.
If you have any further questions, please contact:
Rhaetian Railway
Media Spokesperson
Peider Härtli
Phone 081 288 63 66
p.haertli@rhb.ch
Stadler Rail AG
Tim Büchele
Media Spokesperson
Phone 071 626 31 57, Mobile: 079 765 49 31
tim.buechele@stadlerrail.ch