SWEDEN: Jernhusen has signed a 20-year lease with Railpool subsidiary NTT for a new wheel-lathe shop at Fjällbo depot in Gothenburg. Electrification of the depot area, which has had no overhead wires for 15 to 20 years, is part of the same project.
The Swedish state-owned property company and NTT announced the agreement in a joint statement. NTT Sverige AB will operate a 1,100 square metre facility, which Jernhusen describes as the first modern wheel-lathe shop in the Västra Götaland region. Construction is due to start in October 2026, with the shop and the electrification completed in the second quarter of 2028.
An electric locomotive or train bound for Fjällbo today has to be hauled in by a diesel locomotive because the depot tracks carry no catenary. Once the wires are up, operators can send vehicles straight to the facility and cut the non-revenue mileage that maintenance visits currently involve. The value of the lease has not been disclosed.
Two axles at a time
The shop will be fitted with a tandem wheel lathe that machines two wheelsets simultaneously. Jernhusen puts the turning time at half that of a conventional lathe, which returns rolling stock to service sooner. The equipment will also handle brake discs.
Wheel turning is routine maintenance for every locomotive and coach in service. For operators in western Sweden it has meant moving vehicles to facilities elsewhere, and Peter Larsson, Jernhusen’s operations manager for depots and freight terminals, points to shorter throughput times and fewer long transfers as the operating gain.
First step at Fjällbo
Jernhusen calls the lease and the electrification the first step in a longer development of the Fjällbo area as a depot site for the Gothenburg region. Chief executive Biljana Pehrsson said the aim is “to meet a rapidly increasing demand for efficient train maintenance”.
NTT was founded in Oslo in 2005 as Nordisk Togteknikk and has been part of Railpool since 2022, with workshops in Oslo, Gothenburg and Malmö. The Munich-based lessor operates more than 600 electric and hybrid locomotives and 148 passenger coaches in 20 European countries, and in April secured a EUR 100m loan from KfW for fleet expansion. Alexander Ketterl, who joined the lessor as chief operating officer on 1 June, said the lathe is designed for freight, passenger and maintenance vehicles alike.