A Siemens Mobility locomotive depot handling up to seven locomotives at once is due to open near Poznań in 2027 as the company’s first Rail Service Center in Poland.

Site rendering of the planned Siemens depot at Gądki, viewed across the surrounding fields
Official project rendering published on 14 September 2026 shows the planned Siemens locomotive depot at Gądki near Poznań. Image: Siemens Mobility.

The company announced the project on 14 September 2026. The depot will be built from scratch in Gądki, in the Kórnik municipality of Poznań county, and Siemens Mobility’s Polish arm calls it the company’s first greenfield investment in Poland.

Wheel lathe, drop table and test area

The depot will cover 4,300 square metres. Plans include roughly 5 km of electrified track, a test area, an underfloor wheel lathe and a dropping table, which lets crews lower and change bogies or wheelsets without lifting the whole vehicle. Siemens intends to run both routine and heavy work there: scheduled inspections, maintenance of safety systems, major overhauls, modifications, accident repairs and mobile service. Work at the site is to be organised through Railigent X, the company’s digital platform for managing rail assets.

According to Siemens Mobility, the centre will serve locomotives running in Poland and elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe and will join the company’s European locomotive service network. Siemens also says the facility is planned to run carbon neutrally.

What changes for Siemens’ Polish service business

Siemens is not starting from zero. The company has been maintaining locomotives in Poland for more than 15 years. A team of over 60 specialists currently looks after several hundred locomotives a year, including Vectron, Taurus and BR189-F4 units, and the company has held ECM certification in Poland since 2021. The new centre is meant to bring the existing activities together and widen the range and volume of jobs that can be done in the country.

Elmar Zeiler, CEO Customer Services at Siemens Mobility, framed the project as a platform for the company’s service business across the continent:

“This investment further strengthens our service capabilities, enabling us to provide reliable support throughout the entire lifecycle while creating the foundation for the further development of our service business in Europe.”

How Siemens and Alstom are planning locomotive service capacity in Poland

Siemens’ approach differs from the one Alstom set out a year earlier. In September 2025 Alstom signed a letter of intent with DB Cargo Polska on maintenance work at a locomotive service centre in Rybnik, where the operator already runs a repair facility, to complement Alstom’s Toruń site for Traxx locomotives. Alstom tied the plan to 61 third-generation Traxx Universal locomotives ordered by Polish operators over the previous 24 months.

Siemens’ order book in Poland has grown as well. In February 2024 Cargounit, which Siemens describes as its largest locomotive customer in the country, signed a framework agreement for 90 Vectron MS locomotives, 30 of them called up immediately, plus 10 Smartron units, with first deliveries then planned for 2025.

Aerial rendering of the Siemens Mobility locomotive depot planned at Gądki near Poznań
Official project rendering published on 14 September 2026 shows the planned locomotive depot and track layout at Gądki. Image: Siemens Mobility.

What Kórnik’s environmental decision sets out

The project has already passed an environmental screening. The mayor of Kórnik issued a decision on environmental conditions on 9 September 2025, following an application that Siemens Mobility Sp. z o.o. filed on 10 March 2025, and found that a full environmental impact assessment was not required.

Gądki depot: from environmental application to planned opening
Date Step Status
10 March 2025 Siemens Mobility Sp. z o.o. applies to the mayor of Kórnik for a decision on environmental conditions Completed
23 April 2025 Kórnik opens the proceedings and asks environmental, sanitary and water authorities for opinions Completed
6 May 2025 State County Sanitary Inspector in Poznań sees no need for a full environmental impact assessment Completed
9 May 2025 Wody Polskie catchment board in Poznań reaches the same view and sets conditions for the decision Completed
7 August 2025 Regional Director for Environmental Protection in Poznań agrees, with conditions for the decision Completed
9 September 2025 Mayor of Kórnik issues the decision on environmental conditions Completed
14 September 2026 Siemens Mobility announces the depot Completed
2027 Depot opening Planned by Siemens Mobility

The screening confirmed that no full environmental impact assessment was required; it is not a building permit. Sources: Kórnik decision on environmental conditions, 9 September 2025; Siemens Mobility announcement, 14 September 2026.

The decision allocates about 4.18 hectares to the project. The main building, housing workshops, offices and storage, is to be roughly 12 metres high and equipped with inspection pits, a 20-tonne overhead crane and a locomotive wash; wheel turning is to take place in a separate building.

The plans provide for about 40 employees, including 34 production and six office staff. The depot would operate two shifts on weekdays between 6:00 and 22:00 and one Saturday shift from 6:00 to 14:00.

The decision also requires heating from emission-free sources, with heat pumps planned on the roof, and rules out painting or coating work at the site.

Siemens has named the Marshal’s Office of the Wielkopolska Voivodeship, the Municipality of Kórnik and the Zakłady Kórnickie Foundation as partners in the project. The documents reviewed do not state the value of the investment, and they confirm neither a building permit nor a construction start date.