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GERMANY: Siemens Mobility and Lufthansa Technik Defense have agreed to develop a train that can carry more than 150 injured or sick patients under medical care, aimed at the Bundeswehr and its NATO allies.

Siemens Mobility supplies the train itself: Vectouro coaches hauled by a Vectron X or Vectron X Dual Mode locomotive. Lufthansa Technik Defense fits the coaches with stretcher racks and fully equipped intensive care beds.

The train is designed for up to 90 medical and support staff on board. The coaches can be configured for all four NATO patient categories, D1 to D4, and converted to ordinary passenger use.

The medical systems come from Lufthansa Technik’s aeromedical evacuation business, which the German Air Force and other armed forces have used for decades.

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Rail passenger traffic hits a record as freight falls again

EU: Train passengers in the EU travelled 457 billion passenger-km in 2025, up 2.6% on the year before and the highest figure since data collection began in 2004. Rail freight moved the other way, falling for a fourth year in a row.

Growth slowed. A year ago, Eurostat reported a 5.8% rise for 2024.

Germany’s railways carried 2.95 billion passengers in 2025, ahead of France with 1.31 billion and Italy with 844 million.

Freight volumes are roughly 10% below the 2018 peak of 410 billion tonne-km. The European Commission’s mobility strategy of December 2020 set the goal of raising rail freight by 50% by 2030. Five years later, the growth is on the passenger side.

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Coradia Max delays force Alstom to find EUR 2bn to cut debt

INDUSTRY: Alstom must find around EUR 2bn by September 2027 to reduce its debt after Coradia Max delays and problems on other German projects drained its cash. It now expects an adjusted operating margin of around 1% this financial year, down from around 6.5%.

Alstom paused Coradia Max production from April to June to fix problems on the double-deck regional train. It now expects a cash outflow of EUR 1.5bn this year. Net debt rose to EUR 1.1bn from EUR 0.4bn at the end of March.

The board is reviewing all organic and inorganic options to reduce debt, Alstom said. Its statement named no specific measures.

Alstom is reviewing how the group is organised and where it builds its trains, with decisions due by early 2027. It has not mentioned closures.

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Budapest–Belgrade tickets on sale as ÖBB waits for approval

CROSS-BORDER: Hungarian operator MÁV-Start is selling tickets for two direct trains a day each way between Budapest and Belgrade from 13 December. Austrian operator ÖBB, which says both are to continue to Vienna, says the start still depends on the line being approved in Hungary.

Hungarian Transport Minister Dávid Vitézy told broadcaster RTL on 1 November that two quality assurance and regulatory certificates are still missing. He gave no new date.

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GERMANY: Siemens Mobility and Lufthansa Technik Defense have agreed to develop a train that can carry more than 150 injured or sick patients under medical care, aimed at the Bundeswehr and its NATO allies. No customer, order or timetable has been announced.

The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding ahead of the Berlin Security Conference and announced it on 3 November. Siemens Mobility supplies the train itself: Vectouro coaches hauled by a Vectron X or Vectron X Dual Mode locomotive. Lufthansa Technik Defense fits the coaches with stretcher racks and fully equipped intensive care beds.

The train is designed for up to 90 medical and support staff on board. The coaches can be configured for all four NATO patient categories, D1 to D4, from basic care to intensive care, and converted to ordinary passenger use.

Aircraft equipment on rails

The medical systems come from Lufthansa Technik’s aeromedical evacuation business, which the German Air Force and other armed forces have used for decades. Using the same units on the train means patients do not have to be moved to different equipment between aircraft and rail.

The companies describe the coaches as pressure-sealed, suited to high-speed lines and built for cross-border operation. The dual-mode locomotive runs on diesel where there is no overhead line or where it has failed. The vehicles are designed for more than 30 years of service.

“Especially in these challenging times of geopolitical uncertainty, the capability for medical evacuation is of high strategic importance, and this applies to both land and air transport,” said Michael von Puttkamer, vice president for special aircraft services and defence at Lufthansa Technik.

Rail makers move into defence

The agreement is the latest link between Germany’s rail industry and its defence sector. In October, Alstom agreed in principle to hand its Kassel locomotive plant to Rheinmetall, following its Görlitz plant, which passed to defence group KNDS.

Siemens is offering its newest rolling stock platforms for military use. Vectron X, the locomotive at the heart of the concept, won its first large order in September from leasing company Railpool – 80 firm units and an option on 20 more.

INDUSTRY: Alstom must find around EUR 2bn by September 2027 to reduce its debt after Coradia Max delays and problems on other German projects drained its cash. It now expects an adjusted operating margin of around 1% this financial year, down from around 6.5%.

The French manufacturer announced the new outlook on 2 November, a day after a board meeting, together with preliminary and unaudited figures for the half year to 30 September. It now expects a cash outflow of EUR 1.5bn this year. It also expects to build around 4,000 cars instead of 4,400–4,500, and organic sales growth of low to mid single digits rather than around 5%.

The board is reviewing all organic and inorganic options to reduce debt, Alstom said. Its statement named no specific measures.

Coradia Max and Germany

Alstom paused Coradia Max production in the first quarter of its financial year, April to June, to fix problems on the double-deck regional train. It cites difficulties getting the train into series production, a longer approval process, new technical issues and additional testing requirements. Other projects “executed for, and from, Germany” were also hit.

The adjusted operating margin for the first half was around minus 4%, against 6.4% a year earlier, mainly because of margin adjustments on the German projects. Car production fell 8% to 1,860. Free cash flow was minus EUR 1.25bn, and net debt rose to EUR 1.1bn from EUR 0.4bn at the end of March.

Alstom did not name the customers. Its German Coradia Max customers include Baden-Württemberg, Lower Saxony and Bremen, whose 34 trains are now due from 2028, and Schleswig-Holstein, where Alstom told the news agency dpa in October that its 42 trains would also come from 2028.

Orders up, deliveries down

Alstom is still taking more orders than it turns into sales. It booked EUR 11.0bn in the first half, up 5%, against sales of EUR 9.3bn. The full-year cash shortfall comes mainly from milestone payments that move into later years as approval and entry into service slip, including on Coradia Max, the company said.

Alstom is reviewing how the group is organised and where it builds its trains, with decisions due by early 2027. It has not mentioned closures. It has already agreed in principle to hand its Kassel locomotive plant to Rheinmetall.

Chief executive Martin Sion, in the post since April, expects performance to recover from the 2027/28 financial year, with the margin moving towards 8–10% over the medium term. The shareholders represented on the board support the group and are working with management on the review, and the board is committed to keeping an investment-grade rating.

Full first-half results are due on 17 November, and a capital markets day in the second quarter of 2027.

EU: Train passengers in the EU travelled 457 billion passenger-km in 2025, up 2.6% on the year before and the highest figure since data collection began in 2004. Rail freight moved the other way, falling for a fourth year in a row.

Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office, published the passenger figures on 30 October. They cover the main rail operators and put 2024 at 445 billion passenger-km.

Growth slowed. A year ago, Eurostat reported a 5.8% rise for 2024, when it put the total at about 443 billion passenger-km.

Germany carries the most, Hungarians travel furthest

Germany’s railways carried 2.95 billion passengers in 2025, ahead of France with 1.31 billion and Italy with 844 million. Lithuania carried 5 million, Estonia 8 million and Greece 14 million.

Measured per inhabitant, Hungary leads on distance with 1,692 passenger-km, ahead of France with 1,606 and Austria with 1,588. Greece is last with 69. Luxembourg has the most journeys per inhabitant at 46.1, followed by Hungary and Denmark at about 36 each. In Greece, the average resident made 1.4 rail journeys in the year.

Freight 10% below its peak

In September, Eurostat put rail freight at 368.2 billion tonne-km in 2025, down 1.8% and the fourth fall in a row. Volumes are roughly 10% below the 2018 peak of 410 billion tonne-km. Road freight grew 0.9% over the same year.

The European Commission’s mobility strategy of December 2020 set the goal of raising rail freight by 50% by 2030 and doubling it by 2050. Five years later, the growth is on the passenger side.

CZECHIA: Leo Express will cut services on almost all its long-distance routes from 13 December, with Prague–Ostrava falling from seven or eight return trains a day to two or three. The open-access operator calls the new timetable a first phase and plans to add trains during 2027.

According to Czech transport news site Zdopravy.cz, Prague–Bratislava drops to one train a day, Prague–Prešov to four return trains a week and Prague–Warsaw to one return train.

On Prague–Ostrava, Leo Express competes with state operator Czech Railways and with RegioJet. From December, the two will run almost all the long-distance trains on the line.

Leo Express links the cuts to a delay in converting its Stadler Flirt electric units for dual-system operation and to work on RIC coaches bought from Deutsche Bahn.

The Prague–Munich trains it is contracted to run from 13 December are not yet in its timetable or booking system.

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Finland’s new state train owner orders 21 more Stadler trains

FINLAND: RailStock Finland, the state company that owns the trains for Finland’s publicly funded passenger services, has ordered 21 more Flirt electric trains from Stadler. It exercised an option in a contract signed by operator VR in 2022, bringing the order to 41 trains.

All 41 trains are due in service by 2030, and an option for 29 more remains open until 2036. Stadler did not disclose the value of the order.

In March 2026, RailStock bought VR’s rolling stock for the contracted services, and the Stadler contract went with it.

RailStock owns the trains and leases them out, so the fleet stays with the state whichever operator runs the publicly funded services.

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Customs debts could bankrupt Polish rail operators

POLAND: Polish rail freight operators could be driven into bankruptcy by customs debts on China–EU containers they carried, the Office of Rail Transport (UTK) has warned. The regulator’s president plans to ask the infrastructure and finance ministers for a rapid analysis.

Customs authorities treat the operators as jointly liable for duty on goods that others undervalued or misdeclared. The misdeclarations came to light in investigations by OLAF, the EU’s anti-fraud office.

A single container can trigger more than PLN 367,000 in duty and PLN 163,000 in VAT, according to the business site Rynek Infrastruktury. One company with 54 containers owes more than twice the value of its assets.

The liability threatens operations at the Małaszewicze dry port on the Belarusian border, which handles the main flow of rail freight from China.

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Army hands SBB Cargo CHF 60m freight contract without tender

SWITZERLAND: The Federal Office for Defence Procurement (Armasuisse) has awarded SBB Cargo army transport work worth about CHF 60m without a public tender. It says most of the work needs a nationwide wagonload network, and that only SBB Cargo has one.

The remaining 40% of the work is block trains, wagon hire and equipment sales, for which several providers compete, according to an NZZ report cited by Blick.

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