European Loc Pool has joined the Rail Working Group

4th October 2018

The newly founded European Loc Pool makes locomotives, including full-service solutions, available to rail operators and logistics companies throughout Europe. The European Loc Pool has been presented to the public during InnoTrans in Berlin on 18 September 2018.



The bank Reichmuth & Co from Lucerne and PCS Holding AG from Frauenfeld decided to establish the European Loc Pool (ELP), headquartered in Frauenfeld, due to the high level of demand for innovative leasing solutions. The ELP offers leasing companies a comprehensive service package as well as the locomotives themselves. The services are provided throughout the entire lifetime of the locomotives – and include preventive and corrective maintenance work as well as general inspections and revision work. The fact that lessees do not have to set up their own infrastructure for carrying out maintenance work means that synergies can be exploited and costs saved, leaving the rail operator free to concentrate on their core business. Full servicing and maintenance of the locomotives is already included in the leasing rates.

This type of full-service leasing has become the most popular method for the acquisition of rolling stock by public and private rail operators. The establishment of ELP comes in response to the new market environment. It will allow rail operators not only to lease rolling stock, but also to take advantage of services which will ensure the high-quality running performance of their vehicles in the long term.

Portfolio expansion

ELP is currently focusing on six-axle EuroDual locomotives. These hybrid locomotives are an ELP speciality. They can be operated on electrified and non-electrified sections of line, thereby offering logistical advantages. The next step is to incorporate multi-system electric locomotives intended for operation on defined north-south and west-east corridors into the portfolio, together with four-axle shunting dual-mode locomotives.

Willem Goosen, from the Netherlands, has been appointed CEO of the new locomotive pool company. From 1993 to 2004, he was Vice President of GE Capital / GE Rail Services. From 2005 to 2009 he worked as Manager of CBRail in Munich with the Australian investment firm Babcock & Brown, before emigrating to South Africa where he held managerial positions at various companies in the field of business development. He was instrumental in the set-up of two new rolling-stock leasing companies and a rail infrastructure investment fund in Sub-Saharan-Africa. The Chairman of the Board of Directors is Haydn Turner Abbott from Great Britain. He has been Non-Executive Director at Porterbrook Leasing in Derby since 2015. Prior to that, he was CEO of Angel Trains International and Alpha Trains between 1999 and 2010, during which time he made a great contribution to the successful expansion of both companies.

The Board of Directors also comprises Urs Gerspacher (Managing Partner of AIL Structured Finance since 2003), Stefan Matthias Hasenböhler (Member of the Management of Reichmuth & Co Investment Management since 2008, Partner, Head of Private Markets and Chairman of InRoll since 2012), Christoph Karl Reichmuth (Chairman of the Board of Directors of the private bank Reichmuth & Co.) and Peter Spuhler (owner and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Stadler).

The European Loc Pool placed its first order with Stadler for ten EuroDual locomotives, including a full-service package. The delivery of the locomotives is planned for the second half of 2019 and first half of 2020.