ORLEN Unipetrol Doprava, a leading Czech rail cargo carrier and member of the refining and petrochemical group ORLEN Unipetrol, is planning to receive another four Siemens Vectron MS 383 electric locomotives into its fleet by the end of 2025, which will increase the total number of these modern and interoperable machines in the services of the ORLEN Unipetrol Group to eleven. Investments in additional Siemens Vectron MS 383 locomotives are part of the strategic investment development that ORLEN Unipetrol Doprava has implemented since 2017 to modernise its fleet, strengthen the efficiency and sustainability of international transport, and actively contribute to meeting the sustainable goals of the ORLEN Unipetrol Group by lowering the production of CO2 emissions.
“We have set our strategic plan to become emissions-neutral by 2050. A gradual goal on this path is to lower emissions by 25% by 2030. The key element of making it is not only to decarbonise our production units but also to decarbonise our fleet. The modern Siemens Vectron MS locomotives will help us achieve these goals. With them, we will increase our competitiveness in rail cargo transport,” says Tomasz Wiatrak, CEO and chairman of the ORLEN Unipetrol Group’s board of directors, emphasising the importance of this step.
The purchase of these modern locomotives is part of the strategic investment development in which ORLEN Unipetrol Doprava has invested hundreds of millions of korunas since 2017, when it first started replacing its fleet. With this step, ORLEN Unipetrol Doprava is strengthening its position as an important rail cargo carrier in the Czech Republic and fulfilling its role as a key member of the ORLEN Group while achieving sustainable-development goals.
“By adding four more Siemens Vectron MS interoperable locomotives from Siemens Mobility, we will be operating a total of eleven locomotives of this type, which will enable us to transport efficiently and sustainably between domestic and foreign terminals and other important locations where the ORLEN Group is active,” says Jaroslav Dvořák, executive director at ORLEN Unipetrol Doprava, adding: “This investment will enable us to strengthen our position in cargo transport and to ensure efficient connections to key terminals, mainly in Poland and Germany.”
Roman Kokšal, general director of Siemens Mobility Czech Republic, comments on ORLEN Unipetrol Doprava’s acquisition of four more Vectron locomotives: “As part of the Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG), large corporations will have the obligation, as of 2025, to factor in the carbon footprint of the means of transport they use into the carbon footprint of their organisation and products in the non-financial accounting according to the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). We appreciate the responsible approach of ORLEN Unipetrol Doprava, which, in advance of this obligation, minimises the energy demands of transport by focusing on modern, energy efficient Vectron electric locomotives. According to the statistics of operational data, when pulling cargo trains, Vectron locomotives save approximately 10% of electricity by regenerative braking, thus increasing the economy of transport.”
The Vectron locomotives operated by ORLEN Unipetrol, with an output of 6,400 kW and a common operating speed of 100 km/h, primarily transport chemical products. These Vectrons can be operated not only in the Czech Republic but also in all its neighbouring countries – in Poland, Slovakia, Germany, Austria, and Hungary. A big emphasis is put not only on performance but also on safety. Apart from the respective countries’ national train control systems, the locomotives are also equipped with the modern European Train Control System (ETCS), GSM-R and remote diagnostics. One of the important safety aspects of these locomotives is passive safety which ensures that the locomotive engineer has space for survival in case of emergency.
ORLEN Unipetrol Doprava is one of the important rail cargo carriers in the Czech Republic and, with its contractual partners, facilitates transport not only to the neighbouring countries but also to the countries of the Benelux or the Balkans. It offers a broad portfolio of services on the rail market. Apart from transporting chemical products, it also focuses on forwarding, waggon rentals, repairing and cleaning services, and consulting activities. Its customers include not only the member companies of the international ORLEN Group, but also external firms, including important rail forwarders, foreign carriers and chemical plants without connections to the holding.
The ORLEN Unipetrol Group is the largest refining and petrochemical company in the Czech Republic. It focuses on crude oil processing and the production, distribution and sale of vehicle fuels and petrochemical products – particularly plastics and fertilisers. It belongs among the key players on the Czech and Central European markets in all these areas. The ORLEN Unipetrol Group encompasses refineries and production plants in Litvínov and Kralupy nad Vltavou, Paramo in Pardubice, Spolana in Neratovice, REMAQ in Otrokovice, and two research centres in Litvínov and Brno. ORLEN Unipetrol also includes the ORLEN network of filling stations in the Czech Republic and the ORLEN network in Slovakia and Hungary. ORLEN Unipetrol is one of the largest companies in the Czech Republic in terms of turnover. It employs almost 6,000 people. ORLEN Unipetrol is also a socially responsible company, particularly in the areas of supporting sustainable development, education, local communities and the environment. In 2005, ORLEN Unipetrol became part of the ORLEN Group, the largest oil refiner in Central Europe.