On November 15, EQT Infrastructure II announced that it had completed the acquisition of GB Railfreight from Groupe EuroTunnel through an indirectly owned company within the Hector Rail group. Founded in 1999 by the current CEO John Smith, GB Railfreight is the third largest rail freight operator in the UK, and provides a wide range of rail transport solutions and rail services.

Bo Lerenius, Industrial Advisor to EQT and Chairman of the Hector Rail Group, says: “As one of the UK’s leading rail freight operators, GB Railfreight has proven its strength in the rail industry. The focus on innovation and delivery of outstanding customer service are two key factors that make us believe that GB Railfreight is an excellent fit with Hector Rail.”

More information can be found on Mainlinediesels.net

'Europorte, the rail freight subsidiary of the Eurotunnel Group, and Alstom have signed a partnership agreement covering the maintenance of 17 Alstom manufactured Prima locomotives now operated by Europorte.

Within this framework, the two partners will improve the management and availability of the Europorte locomotive fleet. To do this, they will analyse existing processes; optimise maintenance cycles, interventions on the locomotives and the equipment of the maintenance sites. They will work to reduce the transport to depot time and the locomotive down time to generate significant productivity improvements.

With the Technical Specifications for Interoperability (TSI) now applicable to the Channel Tunnel, the two partners are planning to organise homologation tests for the new generation of Alstom Prima II locomotives in the autumn of 2012.'

However, things get complicated... In order to keep some overview we made a list of all parts of te organisations that will change name, combined with those we are sure of that they won't. Here it is (updated 17.00 CET):

Veolia Cargo companies, taken over by Eurotunnel:

Veolia Cargo France SAS > Europorte France
Veolia Cargo Link > Europorte Link
CFTA Cargo > Europorte Proximity
Socorail > Socorail

already property of Eurotunnel:

Europorte 2 > Europorte Channel

taken over by SNCF:

Veolia Cargo Deutschland > Captrain Deutschland
Veolia Cargo Nederland > Captrain Netherlands
Veolia Cargo Belgium > to be deleted
Veolia Cargo Italia > merged into Captrain Italia
Veolia Cargo SAS > still Veolia Cargo SAS, but will be deleted
Freight Europe UK > Captrain UK
Rail4Chem disappears as brand asap

At this moment, Captrain Benelux is the name for all activities in the Netherlands and Belgium. Finally it will be merged into Captrain Netherlands.

already property of SNCF:

Fret SNCF > Fret SNCF
SNCF Fret Benelux > Captrain Belgium
SNCF Fret Deutschland > merged into Captrain Deutschland
SNCF Fret Italia > merged into Captrain Italia

VFLI France > VFLI France
VFLI Romania > Captrain Romania

ITL Eisenbahn (Dresden) > ITL Eisenbahn
ITL-Cargo > ITL-Cargo
DBV-ITL > DBV-ITL
ITL-Železniční společnost Praha > ITL-Železniční společnost Praha
ITL Polska > ITL Polska
ITL Benelux > Captrain Benelux

If there are remarks, please let us know!

Veolia Cargo France SAS > Europorte France
Veolia Cargo Link > Europorte Link
CFTA Cargo > Europorte Proximity
Europorte 2 > Europorte Channel
Socorail > Socorail

Veolia Cargo SAS (from Nanterre, which name is not changed up till now) is the company which owns/hires the red/grey Prima locomotives. Veolia Cargo France SAS (from Paris) operated several of them, which is now continued under the name of Europorte France. - LC/KAR