Slovakia - private and foreign rail operators

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České dráhy

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This is a RegioShuttle railbus of the Czech state railways České dráhy. It has been bought used from Germany. These were originally built by the German company ADtranz, but after ADtranz went bankrupt, they have been produced by Stadler of Switzerland. However, in the case of this one, small details reveal that this unit is one of the early ones built still during the ADtranz years.
Picture from the Bratislava Hlavná Stanica station 23.6.2023 by Markku Salo.

Regiojet

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Regiojet is a private company, which started competing with Czech state railways and now has extended its offering to Slovakia. For example here is a train serving the route Prag (Praha) - Žilina - Košice. In the beginning Regiojet used very old coaches from where ever they could get and their locomotives were old Skoda machines, but when the traffic volume has expanded, they bought a lot of fairly modern Intercity coaches for example from Austrian state railways ÖBB. Some of Regiojet's coaches are even today registered in Austria. Here we see a Regiojet train which has just arrived from Prag to Kosice. The locomotive is a leased Siemens Vectron owned by European Locomotive Leasing ELL of Germany.
Picture from Kosice station 3.7.2018 by Ilkka Siissalo.

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Most of Regiojet's coaches are former Austrian ÖBB Intercity train coaches. They became superfluous for ÖBB when ÖBB started using more and more of new Railjets instead of traditional Intercities. They are comfortable, but not exactly low-floor :-)
Picture from Kosice station 3.7.2018 by Ilkka Siissalo.

For more pictures of Regiojet's trains, see in this archive the section Czech republic -> Private operators.

Bulk transshipment Slovakia BTS

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BTS is a small private cargo rail operator, which started its services in 2009. In 2018 they have four six axle locomotives, 22 of old Skoda built four axle locomotives, four broad gauge locomotives for operations on Russian gauge lines and one standard gauge class 240 locomotive for operation in Hungary. This is one of the old Skoda class 183 six axle machines.
Picture from Kosice station 3.7.2018 by Ilkka Siissalo.

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The same BTS class 183 machine seen a bit more from its side.
Picture from Kosice station 3.7.2018 by Ilkka Siissalo.

Railtrans International RTI

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At the station of Kúty in Slovakia on 14th July 2018 a long cereals train was waiting headed by two old Škoda locomotives. These are old Czech or Slovakian class 242 machines, now classed as "044" of Railtrans International RTI, a company registered in Bulgaria.
Picture from Kúty 14.7.2018 by Ilkka Siissalo.

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Another "044" of Railtrans International RTI.
Picture from Kúty 14.7.2018 by Ilkka Siissalo.

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This kind of cereals wagons were the payload of the RTI Railtrans International train.
Picture from Kúty 14.7.2018 by Ilkka Siissalo.

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The driver removing insects from the windscreen.
Picture from Kúty 14.7.2018 by Ilkka Siissalo.

Österreichische Bundesbahnen ÖBB / Austrian Federal Railways ÖBB

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There are several routes which trains can take while driving the short distance between Wien and Bratislava. One of these routes is the old rail line from Wien via Marchegg. This route is still not yet electrified. Austrian federal railways ÖBB runs via that route Regionalexpress trains which are pulled or pushed by Siemens ER20 (Baureihe 2016) diesel locomotives. Here we see one of those machines nicknamed "Hercules" at Bratislava main station.
Picture from Bratislava 19.3.2022 by Markku Salo.

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The other end of such a regional express train. This kind of a motorless steering cab coach can remotely control the huge Hercules locomotive at the other end.
Picture from Bratislava 19.3.2022 by Markku Salo.
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