Siemens Teams Up with Portuguese Railway for Fleet Maintenance

German firm Siemens has formed a joint venture with Portuguese national railway company CP's subsidiary EMEF to provide maintenance on the 54 locomotives it has built for CP.

The JV, in which Siemens holds a 49% share, will provide the service for ten years.

The fleet consists of Siemens-built electric locomotives belonging to the Eurosprinter platform that are used for passenger service as well as for freight transport.

The locomotives include 25 LE 4700 type, which CP (Comboios de Portugal) had ordered in 2005 and 29 LE 5600 type, which Siemens had delivered by 1996.

With this, Siemens has become the first private company to be involved in the customer's rolling stock maintenance in Portugal, the company said.

CP operates a 3,000km rail network catering to over 133 million passengers and carrying 10 million metric tonnes of goods annually.