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- Passenger News
- 23. July 2026
- Press Release | Alpha Trains
Press release
Alpha Trains and Talbot Services deepen strategic partnership for rail vehicle maintenance and modernisation
Cologne/Aachen, 23 July 2026 - Alpha Trains, the leading private lessor of locomotives and passenger trains in continental Europe, and Talbot Services GmbH, a rail vehicle specialist based in Aachen, are further expanding their long-standing collaboration. As part of this agreement, the two companies are strengthening their partnership and establishing a long-term strategic framework for capacity planning, maintenance, modernisation, and overhaul activities. The aim of the collaboration is to create better planning certainty, higher efficiency and commercially attractive solutions for operators and transport authorities by pooling vehicle fleets and utilising workshop capacities on a long-term basis.
Driving efficiency through fleet consolidation
The cooperation agreement covers a wide range of technical services. These include overhauls, exterior repainting, redesign work, and retrofitting rolling stock with the European Train Control System (ETCS). Alpha Trains secures dedicated workshop capacity at Talbot’s longstanding Aachen facility by strategically pooling large fleets of vehicles across various customers.
These long-term capacity commitments help ensure reliable project delivery, shorter response times and consistently high-quality standards.
Furthermore, the collaboration strengthens Alpha Trains’ ability to offer integrated leasing and maintenance solutions. By planning overhauls and modernisation measures at an early stage, rolling stock can be efficiently prepared for future deployment and economically attractive leasing models can be developed throughout their entire lifecycle.
For Talbot Services, the agreement also ensures a long-term planning certainty through a reliable workload for the workshop while facilitating the strategic planning of resources and investments.
The new agreement with Talbot Services, alongside Alpha Trains’ existing framework agreement with Rolls-Royce Power Systems for MTU PowerPack overhauls, underscores the company’s commitment to integrated maintenance solutions for multiple units. With 25 years of experience in the rail vehicle sector, Alpha Trains can offer economically attractive leasing solutions that go beyond traditional financing models. Further discussions with partners regarding the expansion of this approach have already begun.
“With this cooperation agreement, we are elevating our long-standing partnership with Talbot to a new strategic level,” explains Bernhard Holzer, Managing Director of Alpha Trains Europa GmbH and head of the Passenger division at Alpha Trains. “Through the long-term capacity planning now agreed and the targeted consolidation of our fleets, we are creating genuine added value for our customers: greater planning certainty, short response times and economically attractive solutions throughout the vehicle lifecycle. At the same time, we are strengthening our ability to prepare existing fleets for future operations in a sustainable and efficient manner, and to offer our customers modern, flexible leasing solutions.”
“We are delighted to have signed this cooperation agreement with our long-standing client, Alpha Trains. This will further strengthen our successful partnership and provide a reliable long-term baseline workload for our production facilities,” adds Dirk Reuters, CEO of Talbot Services GmbH.
Nearly three decades of successful collaboration
The new agreement builds on a long-standing and trusted partnership. The collaboration dates back to 2004, when the first large fleets of the Talent VT643 model were manufactured in the Aachen workshop. A tangible reminder of this shared history remains in service today: the very first Talent train ever produced (Talent 1, built in 1998) is part of Alpha Trains’ fleet and will also benefit from the new agreement.
In recent years, the two companies have reached a number of significant milestones together. These include extensive refurbishment and redesign programmes – most recently involving 35 Alstom Coradia Continental multiple units for S-Bahn Bremen - as well as a long-standing and trusted partnership in carrying out accident repairs across a wide range of vehicle classes.
About Alpha Trains
Alpha Trains is the leading private rolling stock lessor in Continental Europe. A total of 160 employees from 20 countries work in offices in Luxembourg, Antwerp, Cologne, Madrid, Paris and Warsaw. Alpha Trains owns more than 1,000 locomotives and passenger trains and offers tailor-made leasing solutions, comprehensive know-how in maintenance and vehicle repairs as well as long-term experience in the financing of new-build projects. Alpha Trains’ fleets are in use at many public and private operators in 22 European countries. Alpha Trains′ shareholders are APG, Arcus European Trains, PGGM and Swiss Life.
Press Contacts
Alpha Trains Group
Heike Zimmermann, Group Head of PR & Marketing
Phone: +49 221 9140 9063
[email protected]