AERRL announces one-year renewal of its five directors

The following decisions were taken unanimously by the members of the Association of European Rail Rolling Stock Lessors (AERRL) at their General Meeting in Madrid.

• Fabien Rochefort, CEO of Akiem, is reelected as Chair of AERRL.
• Bart Lam, Chief Commercial Officer of BRCE, and Torsten Lehnert, CEO of Railpool, are reelected as Vice-Chairs.
• Volker Simmering, CEO of Northrail, and Carmen Garcia Cristobal, Head of Sales and Business Development of Renfe Alquiler, have been reelected as board members.

In the context of the ongoing start-up phase, the stability of the current board, including the executive team made up of the chairman and the two vice-chairmen, is an asset for continuing to build and develop the association.

Looking ahead, AERRL faces new challenges such as promoting the coordination of the deployment of a single standardised ERTMS and a sectorial roadmap for a zero net emission fleet, improving energy settlement, impacting the DAC project, ECM regulation, and state aid guidelines for rail transport.

According to a study by SCI Verkehr GmbH updated to 31/12/2023 for AERRL, lessors own 3650 locomotives in the EU+CH/NO. They have placed firm orders for 800 new locomotives that will be delivered from 2024 onwards. At 31/12/2023, AERRL members represent a whopping 80% of this total number of lessor orders in the EU market.