Polish rail freight operator Lotos Kolej has shifted from renting to owning the flat wagons. It has added 22 new units to its fleet. They will allow the company to run the existing container trains from Poland to Germany and to launch the new intermodal connections.

Lotos Kolej entered service 22 new flat wagons at the end of July. They were coupled in a freight train to deliver containers from Małaszewicze, an important railway crossing on the Belarusian border, to the German city of Krefeld, which is located close to Duisburg and the Dutch border.

The Polish rail freight operator intends to use these wagons for the future shipments on the mentioned route. It is also considering the possibility to launch the new services. “Our company operates container routes from Małaszewicze to the western and northern parts of Germany. In the near future, we are preparing to provide the other connections on the main intermodal corridors in this part of Europe,” Lotos Kolej stated to RailFreight.

324 wagons

Earlier, Lotos Kolej had leased the flat wagons of the other companies. Now, it has changed its strategy towards owning. In early 2020, the operator signed the contracts with two manufacturers for delivering 324 new flat wagons. Bulgarian company Kolowag will supply 288 wagons for transporting 80-foot containers while Slovakia-based company Tatravagónka will produce 36 wagons for carrying 40-foot containers.

Both agreements should be fulfiled by June 2022. The mentioned 22 flat wagons are the first batch that had been delivered by Kolowag. It is worth to add that all 324 wagons cost 191.5 million zlotys (43.6 million euros). Of this amount, 65.1 million zlotys (14.8 million euros) were allocated from the EU funds.

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