IRS group to deliver 6,000 train cars to Touax

Touax will rent the train cars to private or state-owned industrial groups or important railway operators in Europe. The company owns 5,424 train cars and will increase their number to over 10,000 units following the contract with IRS.

“IRS has been a valuable supplier for Touax in the past 10 years and through this contract we have consolidated our position as the second-largest train car rental company in Europe,” said Fabrice Walewski, Manager Partner of Touax.

According to IRS General Manager, Juergen von Schwerin, there is great demand for train cars on all markets on which the company is present.

IRS and Touax collaborated for the first time in 1998, for the reconditioning of second-hand train cars at the Romvag Caracal factory.

Touax, listed on the Paris Stock Exchange, rents some 450,000 container cars to railway merchandise transport companies.

IRS won a bid to deliver new train cars to Serbia, making available 750 Eanoss train cars by the end of the year, in a contract worth €57 mln. The project, whose beneficiary is the Serbian Railway Company, is financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

At the end of 2007, IRS also signed an agreement with Deutsche Bahn, Germany’s national railway operator, to deliver 6,000 train cars, and the contract is due to be signed this year.