Siemens Mobility, a division of Siemens specialising in rail transport, and Railpool, a rail vehicle rental company, are joining forces to establish a locomotive service hub in Verona, Italy.
The hub, planned for a 15,000m2 site to be acquired from Consorzio ZAI under a preliminary agreement, will be situated within the Verona Interporto logistics hub, Italy’s largest integrated traffic terminal.
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This initiative involves a joint investment of approximately €20m ($23.4m), aiming to develop an “open access” facility for maintaining locomotives from various manufacturers.
The proposed locomotive service hub will consist of five tracks dedicated to light maintenance and one track equipped with a wheel lathe.
The hub is designed to support testing and maintenance of both Multisystem (MS) and Direct Current (DC) locomotives, ensuring compatibility with all major European signalling systems.
Siemens Mobility and Railpool project a significant increase in rail transport by 2032, coinciding with the opening of the Brenner Base Tunnel, which is expected to double rail capacity across the Alps.
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By GlobalDataSiemens Mobility CEO Michael Peter said: “Together with Railpool, we are strengthening rail freight on the strategic Verona-Brenner corridor.
“This dedicated locomotive hub is equipped with state-of-the-art maintenance technology to give our customers maximum availability and efficiency. It will support the shift of freight from road to rail as the Brenner Base Tunnel opens and become an important part of our European depot and service network.”
Strategically located on the Verona-Brenner corridor, the locomotive service hub will focus on optimising lifecycle performance and system availability. It will provide services such as routine inspections and minor adjustments to ensure trains are operationally ready.
This new hub will complement Siemens Mobility’s existing service centre in Novara, which has been operational since 2015 along the Rhine-Alpine TEN-T corridor.
Siemens Mobility maintains over 100 service locations across more than 30 countries. Railpool intends to utilise its six in-house workshops and a warehouse with over 4,500 spare parts to enhance its service capabilities through this new development.
Railpool CEO Torsten Lehnert said: “With our new maintenance hub in Verona, we are strengthening our service network across Europe’s key logistics corridors.
“This investment underscores our long-term commitment to delivering reliable, full-service locomotive leasing solutions that support the evolving needs of customers throughout the continent.”
In addition to this venture, Siemens and Railpool signed a framework agreement in 2024 for delivering up to 250 locomotives to the latter. This includes multisystem Vectron variants that operate across multiple European corridors.
Recently, Siemens announced that the Siemens Mobility–led RemODtrAIn consortium is developing and testing a secure remote-control system and a modular, AI-assisted obstacle detection solution for digital train operations in rail depots. As part of the project, an ICE 4 will be fitted with advanced 5G technology, enabling remote operation from a central control station located on the depot site.
