GATX Rail Europe Secures Historic Deal as Wagon Market Faces Pressure

The European wagon leasing market is under strain, but GATX Rail Europe is moving in the opposite direction, expanding its fleet and striking one of the most significant acquisitions in its history.

In an interview with Verkehr – Internationale Wochenzeitung, CEO  says the company is positioning itself for the long term, even as demand, margins and rail competitiveness remain under pressure.

Falling Volumes and Shorter Contracts Challenge Wagon Lessors

Feindert notes that geopolitical tensions, weak industrial output and production shifts away from Europe have sharply reduced transport volumes across key sectors. According to him, the utilisation of GATX Rail Europe’s fleet has dropped by 5–15 percent in recent months, a decline seen across the wider private wagon leasing industry.

Wagons remain leased under longer-term contracts, but Feindert explains that the typical duration has shortened from several years to just one to three. Spot leasing is not a major focus for GATX, and the changing industrial landscape offers fewer large, stable flows, particularly in chemicals, where production is exiting Europe.

Companies like GATX Rail Europe are also indirectly affected by the high energy costs faced by European railways, which squeeze operators’ budgets and ultimately reduce wagon demand. Lower rail competitiveness against cheaper road transport is another concern, with Feindert warning that "immer mehr Räder stillstehen" as freight shifts to trucks.

Rising costs, declining volumes and cautious investment environments have left wagon lessors with increasing numbers of idle assets, expensive to maintain and contributing nothing to emissions reduction. As Feindert puts it: "There is certainly no cause for celebration in our industry at the moment."

GATX Expands Its Global Position and Makes a Landmark Move in Europe

Despite market headwinds, GATX Rail Europe executed what Feindert calls a historical deal: the company purchased 6,000 freight wagons from Deutsche Bahn. DB will continue using the wagons and lease them back from GATX, ensuring full utilisation from day one.

Globally, GATX has also expanded aggressively. In the United States, the company acquired 105,000 wagons from Wells Fargo, boosting its US fleet from 111,000 to 216,000 units. Adding the 36,500 wagons in Europe and more than 10,000 in India, GATX now manages a fleet exceeding 263,000 wagons, becoming the world’s largest private wagon lessor.

Feindert estimates that around half of Europe’s 600,000 active wagons are owned by private companies. He notes a trend: state railways increasingly divest wagons, while smaller operators without their own fleets rely heavily on leasing. However, he warns against rail operators attempting to shift operational responsibilities and liabilities onto lessors, a burden GATX cannot accept: "We cannot take on this responsibility or liability because we are not part of the operation."

Feindert argues that rights and obligations must remain clearly defined in the Allgemeiner Verwendungsvertrag (AVV), which governs relations between wagon owners and rail customers.

Swiss Rules Threaten European Interoperability, UIP Warns

One of the most serious challenges pointed out in the interview concerns Switzerland’s unilateral tightening of wheelset inspection intervals following the 2023 Gotthard Base Tunnel accident. The Swiss Federal Office for Transport (BAV) introduced much stricter revision rules that, Feindert warns, undermine interoperability across Europe.

Although the compliance deadline has been extended to the end of 2026, private wagon owners, not rail operators or infrastructure managers, would carry the financial burden of drastically shorter maintenance cycles. "The BAV regulation will destroy interoperability in European rail traffic," stated Feindert. He notes that the Swiss approach contradicts the work of the Joint Network Secretariat under the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA), whose harmonised measures are already agreed and set to be updated. Switzerland’s divergence risks shaking the foundations of European rail freight.

Despite these challenges, Feindert insists that rail remains Europe’s most sustainable and safest transport mode, and concludes the interview with a call for unity: "Our common goal must be to strengthen competitiveness and interoperability."