VRR and Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek Succeed With Innovative Vehicle Financing

Public transport association Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr and Abellio NRW GmbH signed the transport agreement on the RB 47 line (from Wuppertal via Remscheid to Solingen) at a ceremony held at Stadthalle Wuppertal today.

In December, the pan-European award procedure on the RB 47 line had been concluded with an outstanding result. VRR had awarded the RB 47 line with new vehicle financing to Abellio, which had prevailed in the bidding procedure with the innovative financing model developed by VRR. With the new financing model, VRR for the first time will finance vehicles itself and will lease them to the railway company during the operational period.

VRR succeeds with Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek

Martin Husmann, CEO, Georg Seifert and Peter Langenberg from VRR had developed the financing model, supported by Dr. Ute Jasper and Dr. Kristina Neven-Daroussis from law firm Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek. The objective was to open competition also for smaller transport companies that do not have their own vehicle fleet and also make the favorable local authority loan terms available to these competitors. This objective has been achieved with great success.

Prevailing over conventional models

In addition to the innovative financing model, VRR had also allowed conventional models such as leasing and equity finance over which the financing model prevailed. "The result is welcome because it strengthens competition for small railway companies in a market that had previously been hardly accessible," said Dr. Jasper. Currently, smaller railway companies are finding it hard to submit competitive bids given the difficult financing conditions. As of December 2013, Abellio will provide transport services on the line from Wuppertal to Solingen for 15 years instead of DB Regio. In doing so, Abellio will use new vehicles financed by VRR.