ON August 7 Austrian Federal Railways’ subsidiary ÖBB Produktion published a tender for five second-hand electric locomotives certified to operate in Slovenia. This seems to be an urgent case as ÖBB has given bidders just two weeks to respond to the tender.
Open-access operators Adria Transport and LTE recently hired two former ÖBB Class 1822 electrics capable of working between the Adriatic port of Koper, Maribor, and the Austrian border at Spielfeld-Strass. The Zidani Most–Maribor line has weight restrictions which prohibit ÖBB’s usual class 1216 electric locomotives from working over this line. This means Rail Cargo Austria freight trains are subject to a lengthy diversion via Jesenice, as ÖBB does not have any other electric locomotives certified to operate on the Slovenian network.