we keep you
on track

Dobrich Locomotive Depot supports railway network operators in maintaining high operational standards. We keep them on track...

Quality rail transport has become a vital part of the development of our economies and communities, both in terms of moving people and goods efficiently.

Efficient intercity rail operators not only focus on reducing journey durations but must also offer travellers accurate services and a great journey experience.

Efficient railfreight operators are capable of overcoming the burden of crossing borders, and guaranteeing timely train delivery, including to the last mile operation,

therefore reducing the heavy goods vehicle traffic on our roads, making them safer and less congested.

Performing urban transport systems, delivering punctual, cost-efficient services, and using a clean, modern infrastructure are vital to fast-growing modern cities that wish to preserve their citizens' quality of life. Highly performing rail freight operators

By assisting, advising, and sometimes practically helping all operators across Europe to resolve their operational difficulties at all levels, Dobrich Locomotive Depot “keeps you on track” to your safety, profitability, and quality targets.

Join our team – We are looking for talented & driven people to come work with us. Available Positions

WHAT WE DO

We help public and private railway operators, rail infrastructure companies, and leasing companies to restructure and optimize their operations across Europe and Asia:

We advise and support them when they transition to private,

when they go international,

or when they have a major operational problem

HOW DO WE DO IT

We are operational people.

We do not keep things at a strategic level.

We work hard to find optimal operational solutions for our clients, and we are good at problem-solving "on the ground".

Our brains function well, but we get our hands "dirty".

We have ideas, we try them, and when they work, we implement them, all for the benefit of our clients. We do that internationally, and we are good at having trains cross borders efficiently.

OUR APPLICATIONS

PASSENGER RAIL

Passenger rail operations, new rolling stock selection, support to tendering, homologation, safety assessment

URBAN RAIL

Tramway & Metro operations assessment, refurbishment engineering, rolling stock selection and tendering, driverless and catenary-less technologies

FREIGHT RAIL

Cross-border freight traffic, spot train organization, rolling stock selection and tendering, maintenance, operations optimization, safety assessment

Якорь 1

Dobrich Locomotive Depot helps its clients to address multiple, complex issues of operating in the passenger market.

With an important wave of privatizations across Europe, new Railway undertakings start operating in Germany, the Netherlands, France and Scandinavia.

With a strong experience of having supported private clients in the British passenger market, we have been able to help Public and Private operators alike.

Specifically designed for urban rail applications, our tramway and metro operational services allow operators to keep high uptimes.

With a specialty of suburban traffic management and automated metro, Dobrich Locomotive Depot also helps its urban customers perform optimally in terms of rolling stock uptime, helping them to optimize their maintenance plans.

Since 2004, our experts have been focusing on Freight rail operations: they are at the forefront of international traffic today, and we support national and international operators alike.

The issues of Cross-border traffic organization, both within European boundaries and outside Europe, are one of our specialties.

We have been capable of helping several large and mid-size players gain sizeable market shares by smoothly operating across borders.

From international regulatory issues to rolling stock homologation to multilingual train operation and maintenance planning.

OUR ACTIVITIES

01

INTERNATIONAL RAIL OPERATIONS STRATEGIES

Whether our client runs a hotel train and wants to expand activities across Europe, or wishes to split its locomotive maintenance operations between the port of Antwerp (BE) and the the port of Koper (SLO), we identify the difficulties to operate railways internationally and systematically find solutions to solve operational issues, reduce costs and identify the factors that will allow them to deliver a quality service.

With experts in 7 European countries, we have a broad view of operational interactions and pitfalls of European railways, from operational maintenance to regulatory issues.

02

RAILWAY

SAFETY

We specialize in railway safety analysis within the regulatory framework of the European TSI (Technical Specs for Interoperability) 1300/2014/EU, with a focus on operation, maintenance, and signaling systems. This is a major element of Homologation requests from our customers.

We do not only ensure the integrity of the safety plans of our customer but also link with the ERA (European Rail Agency), the NSAs (National Safety Authorities) and the different NoBo (Notifying Bodies), DeBo (Designated Bodies), AsBo (Assessment Bodies) and ISA (Independent Safety Assessor) according to UNE-EN50126 and UNE-EN50129 standards. This activity also includes ECM 445 and 779 support.

ACTIVITIES

03

TENDERING SUPPORT

Requirement analysis:

Based on your exact requirements, our teams will conduct an initial complete analysis, through a broad Technical & Functional specification, a first market review, and the design of milestones for the complete procurement project. This often results in floating an "Expression of Interest", which allows to get a better understanding of the potential suppliers and their respective strengths, weaknesses, and technical solutions, as well as selecting only the reliable entrants.

Tender drafting:

By integrating all the commercial, legal, operational, and technical requirements into one suite of documents, and helping the customer to allocate weight an performance criteria, we help our customer to establish an efficient and robust selection process.

Offers analysis and selection process:

This final process usually happens in two steps: A first pre-selection of 2 to 4 candidates, followed by a negotiation and BAFO (Best and Final Offer), which designates the best supplier according to the selection criteria.

ROLLING STOCK AND MAINTENANCE ACQUISITION SUPPORT

04

We apply part or all of the tendering support process to help our customers identify the optimal newbuilt or second-hand solutions for rolling stock equipment.

We also use our strong maintenance experience to help our customers organize an efficient maintenance activity, integrating from the inception the Key Performance Indicators linked to availability of the rolling stock and infrastructure.

05

ROLLING STOCK HOMOLOGATION

SUPPORT

We support clients in their homologation (for rolling stock) and certification (for A and B Rail Safety Certificate) across Europe and the UK.

This also covers the requirements and practicalities that lead to defining the costing and profit elements of an international railfreight operation.

06

GREEN

RAILWAY

We help both passenger and Freight operators to pre-empt the new regulatory frameworks that are being drafted in terms of environment.

This involves assisting leasing operators and railway undertakings to define a new locomotive/traction strategy, evaluating Hybrid, Accumulator and Hydrogen traction solutions, both from a rolling stock and infrastructure/energy delivery solution.

OUR PROJECTS

Design and operational planning of a luxury hotel train

Our customer is a luxury hotel brand that requires a luxury train (5 carriages) that travels across Europe. The commissioning covered:

The carriages' design, modifications, and refurbishment (the train must be fully homologated by European TSI standards, but the bodywork and interiors must remain “vintage”.
The homologation, including cross-border issues.
The daily operation plan in the UK, France, Germany, and Italy.

In addition to this project, we have currently undertaken projects of 200 km/h silver dining trains from London to Glasgow and other international sleeper trains.

Design and implementation of a Freight Operations plan

Our client, a French railway group specialized in infrastructure operations, has recently acquired a maintenance company and is now developing its hauling activity as a freight operator (holding an A-Safety Certificate and a French B-Safety certificate).

With a fleet of 35 Vossloh Diesel-Hydraulic locomotives, he is contemplating expanding its activities to Germany, Poland and Czech Republic, with a view to expand southwards and eastwards to Slovakia, Hungary and the Balkans.

Our support incorporates these steps:

Audit and support for obtaining the B-Safety Certificate in the targeted countries outside France

Homologation of several existing locos in Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic

Creation of a Drivers and Operational organization (multilingual)

Creation of a multilingual, multisite maintenance network with 3 maintenance levels + Mobile interventions.

Identification and resolution of all potential issues to produce “spot” and “scheduled” trains across all the above countries.

De-carbonation strategy

Our customer, the 3rd largest European rolling stock leasing company (ROSCO) and the largest owner of diesel-electric line locomotives across Europe, has engaged in a de-carbonation strategy of its entire fleet.

Our support covers the following:

Complete analysis of the diesel fleet (Diesel-electric and Diesel-hydraulic) from a pollution emission per km/ton viewpoint (all power regimes included).