The Anonymous Widower

Financing: The Luxembourg Rail Protocol Can Underwrite A Rail Resurgence

The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Railway Gazette International.

This is the sub-heading.

Now being adopted by a growing number of states, the Luxembourg Rail Protocol offers strong protections for private investors in rolling stock, leading to lower financing costs and other benefits, as Howard Rosen, Chairman of the Rail Working Group, explains

These first two paragraphs give a some detail.

Worldwide, it used to be said that rail was a sunset industry. No longer; the railway world is turning. Unless you are directly affected, you may not have noticed this yet, because institutional change in the rail sector happens so slowly.

But with some notable outliers, open access in both freight and passenger rail is either already in place or is coming. Governments and state-owned agencies are gradually withdrawing from the operation of both passenger and freight train services, or at least sharing, delegating, or concessioning operations to private operators.

Under a section entitled An Whose Idea Time Has Come, the author highlights how South Africa, Mozambique and seven countries in Europe are embracing open access services for both freight and passenger.

The Luxembourg Rail Protocol is mainly about two things, that make financing and managing of rolling stock easier and more secure.

  • The creation of a public International registry of all leases of rolling stock in Luxembourg. This will be very useful in defaults.
  • All rail vehicles will be given an URVIS number, which is somewhat like a VIN number for a road vehicle.

I believe, if a country adopts the protocol, this will encourage more finance companies to fund rolling stock.

Certainly, the truck and general finance company that I part-owned in Ipswich in the 1980s, would have seriously looked at rolling stock in a local company, if the protocol had existed. We did have specialist areas, which included taxis, coaches and fairground rides, which could be difficult to finance.

The article is very much a must-read.

 

 

November 15, 2026 Posted by | Finance & Investment, Transport/Travel | , , , , , , , | Leave a comment