10 years ago, Wascosa AG presented its first modular freight wagon and one year later it won the Canton of Zug’s Award for Innovation. The initial reaction from the industry was a cautious one. But today, the trend is firmly towards modular freight wagons. The "Wascosa flex freight system® " or "ffs" for short, under which Wascosa markets its highly successful modular freight wagons has broken into the market and is here to stay: And only recently, the 500th wagon was delivered. Other major industry players have followed Wascosa‘s lead and have also developed modular concepts over the past three years.
The recently delivered 500th ffs wagon is a multi-purpose Sgmmns type wagon, which with its various superstructures for rail-based construction site logistics, will go into service with Sersa Switzerland, part of the Rhomberg Sersa Rail Group, and which itself is one of the leading companies in the railway infrastructure construction and maintenance business. Rudi Hoz, Head of Customer and Market Support at Sersa Group AG (Switzerland), has some very enthusiastic words for the flex freight concept: "The flex freight system from Wascosa meets our requirements for flexible and versatile wagons in every respect. The proven innovative expertise that has been the hallmark of Wascosa in the freight wagon market for many years, makes it an ideal partner for Sersa". Wascosa is currently delivering additional modular freight wagons to other industry sectors such as the steel and chemical industries.
From innovation to the new standard
When you think about the journey all the way form the initial presentation of the product idea to the general acceptance and presence that the concept enjoys today, you realise just how much time innovations in the European rail freight market take. When Wascosa took the pioneering step of presenting the first modular standard freight wagon at the Munich transport logistic trade fair in 2009, the reaction from industry was one of considerable reticence and scepticism. But over the years that followed there was a clear change of minds: The freight wagon industry changed its thinking and a growing number of industry players became convinced that the concept of modular freight wagons was going to be an important part of the future of rail logistics.
The breakthrough came in 2017 when German giant, the Ludwigshafen based BASF SE, which is the world's largest chemical company in terms of sales turnover, unveiled in partnership with Wascosa, the first modular tank wagons which were set to replace their tank wagon fleet. Up until this moment, the feeling in the industry was that modular concepts wouldn’t stand a chance, especially in terms of replacing specialist freight wagons such as tank wagons. So the development which was spearheaded by BASF and Wascosa came as quite a wake-up call to the freight wagon sector, to the extent that over the last three years, various other industry players, including the very biggest such as DB Cargo, VTG and RCA have also been developing modular concepts.
Irmhild Saabel, Head of Business Development at Wascosa, is understandably proud of the success of this innovation: "10 years after the first presentation of the Wascosa flex freight system, modular freight wagons are today firmly established in the market. In the future, they will account for a substantial share of new purchases made to replace old rolling stock. This will be the case for standard freight wagons, but also for specialist freight wagons".
The new ffs-wagon for Sersa, type Sgmmns
Wascosa's first modular ffs-freight wagon presented in 2009