It is now possible to travel to the German North Sea island of Sylt in beautifully quiet, environmentally-friendly style: for its motorail service from Niebüll, on the mainland, across the Hindenburg Causeway to the town of Westerland on Sylt, rail operator RDC AUTOZUG Sylt GmbH has bought two new Siemens Vectron DE diesel-electric locomotives, each equipped with an mtu 16V 4000 R84 engine to comply with the stringent EU Stage IIIB emissions requirements, as well as remaining well within the permitted thresholds for particulate emissions, thanks to a combination of internal engine modifications and an exhaust gas aftertreatment system. This environmentally-friendly engine produces up to 2,400 kW of power and is able to propel the Vectron DE all the way to its maximum speed of 160 kilometers per hour.
“We are delighted to be able to operate our motorail services to Sylt now using these modern, quiet and efficient locomotives,” said Dr. Markus Hunkel, Managing Director of RDC Deutschland.
The first of the two new locomotives has already been delivered and is being used for driver training to enable it to go into regular service at the beginning of 2018. The second Vectron for the blue-liveried AUTOZUG Sylt service is due to follow in June 2018. The two Vectrons for AUTOZUG Sylt will bring the total number of Vectron DE locomotives in service at Siemens customers to nine. Four of these vehicles are currently pulling freight in Germany for DB Cargo.
In October 2016, RDC Autozug Sylt GmbH became the first private rail operator to transport passengers over the Hindenburg Causeway to Sylt and back. The company’s motorail vehicles can accommodate up to 80 vehicles, and the 2018 timetable, which comes into force on December 10, 2017, includes up to 22 services per day between Sylt and the mainland.
Motorail services across the Hindenburg Causeway are offered by both RDC AUTOZUG Sylt and Deutsche Bahn (Sylt Shuttle). There is no road link.
Traveling to Sylt on trains powered by mtu engines is far from being a novelty – until 2016 Deutsche Bahn had been using its 215 and 218-class locomotives on this service for over 30 years, most of them powered by mtu Series 956 and Series 4000 engines.
