Swiss firm lines up flexible freight wagon at UK market

Swiss company Wascosa plans to enter Britain’s freight wagon leasing market, Chief Executive Peter Balzer told the Rail Freight Group conference in London on April 26.

Praising the innovation found in Britain, Balzer introduced Wascosa’s flexible freight wagon that is essentially a flat wagon capable of carrying containers but which can also be fitted with various cassettes to convert it into (for example) an open box wagon.

Balzer said this would make the wagon more flexible and better able to cope with seasonal traffic that today needs specialist wagons that are used only occasionally. The cassettes can be folded when not in use and offer the prospect of a wagon carrying one load one way and a different load on the way back, he said. One frame might be suitable for timber, another for chemicals and another for agricultural produce, he added.

He called for more intelligent freight wagons with kit fitted that reports position, load and performance. Using information from such wagons could help drive productivity.

Further innovation could come from Wascosa’s plan to equip wagons with an electric power supply from their train’s locomotive, to power refrigerated containers. These ‘reefer’ boxes usually have their own small, on-board diesel generator making them not really suitable for long tunnels. Supplying electricity from overhead line equipment via a locomotive would remove the need for these diesel generators to run, Balzer said.

Switzerland has both longer tunnels than Britain and more extensive electrification, but his ‘reefer’ wagons could prove useful for traffic using the Channel Tunnel.

Balzer emphasised the need to make freight wagons work as hard as possible to ensure that every last percentage of their value was used.

Wascosa was founded in 1964 to lease rail freight wagons. By its 50th anniversary in 2014, it had a fleet of 7,000 operating in Europe. Its fleet includes container flats and tank, hopper, box and open wagons.