Private, Profitable, Precise: Inside Helrom’s Rail Freight Strategy

Launching a private rail freight company in Europe’s crowded logistics market? For Helrom CEO Roman Noack, it wasn’t a gamble—it was an obvious next move, inspired by North American precision and built for European disruption.

In a sector often dominated by legacy operators and modest returns, Helrom is carving a new path. The Frankfurt-based rail freight company, founded in 2018 by Roman Noack and former Canadian National Railway executive Keith Heller, has defied industry expectations with a Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR) strategy inspired by North American freight models.

Helrom entered a field dominated by giants like DB Cargo, which alone claimed 44% of Germany’s rail freight market share in 2023, according to the Federal Network Agency. Yet, as Noack sees it, the real opportunity lay in precisely that environment. "I have always seen a huge market with enormous potential," he told DVZ in a recent interview. "I didn’t consider founding Helrom to be a particularly brave or risky move."

European technology news: Frankfurt’s Helrom secures €32.9M green loan for sustainable decarbonisation of rail freight transport /via @SiliconCanals //t.co/aeNEktrsU0

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From Vision to Velocity

Helrom’s growth is proving his instincts right. The company’s first train ran in autumn 2020. By 2024, revenue had tripled year-on-year to EUR 23 million, and Helrom now operates six shuttle services connecting Germany with Austria, Italy, and Hungary. This expansion comes despite a broader freight recession, proving the resilience of its model.

That model draws inspiration from the other side of the Atlantic. While working at DB Cargo, Noack crossed paths with Heller, a veteran of CN and former Co-Chairman of DB Schenker Rail. It was Heller who introduced Noack to Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR), a methodology that had transformed North American freight operations by emphasising schedule discipline, cost control, and asset productivity. Noack saw in it the same kind of lean process thinking that had reshaped the automotive industry—a subject that had fascinated him since his schooldays.

"We realised that implementing PSR wouldn’t be feasible within the legacy structures of Europe’s large incumbent operators," Noack explained. "So we built Helrom from scratch around those principles."

Scaling Against the Odds

Unlike many asset-heavy rail startups that struggle under the weight of high capital costs and low margins, Helrom has managed to attract significant investment. The company recently secured over EUR 30 million in fresh funding to support its next phase of growth. While the rail freight sector typically offers modest single-digit returns—if any—Helrom’s approach has convinced backers that streamlined operations and disciplined planning can yield a competitive edge.

Noack’s perspective is a sharp contrast to conventional wisdom in the sector, where the barriers to entry are steep and consolidation is the norm. Of the roughly 250 freight operators in Germany, only about a quarter are privately owned, with most others backed by public institutions or state-owned railways. Yet Helrom is demonstrating that a nimble newcomer with a clear operational philosophy can compete.

What makes Helrom different is not just the PSR doctrine, but how that doctrine translates into practice in the European context. Instead of promising services, the company delivers them with consistency. It doesn’t chase volume at any cost, but focuses on what it can execute reliably. That philosophy has led to a gradual but firm expansion of its route network with an emphasis on operational discipline and service quality.

What's There to Expect?

Helrom is now at a turning point. With funding secured and a growing footprint across Central Europe, the next challenge is scaling up without losing the efficiency that set it apart. Whether the company’s PSR-inspired formula can succeed at larger volumes remains to be seen, but the momentum is clear. As the industry eyes decarbonisation, digitalisation, and modal shift targets, companies like Helrom are carving out a space in a sector once thought closed to newcomers.

Source: DVZ