K&L Gates Advises Rock Rail Holdings Limited on Regional Passenger Rail Project Netz Nördliches Westfalen

Global law firm K&L Gates has assisted Rock Rail Holdings Limited’s tender of a successful bid via its German subsidiary, Rock Rail NnW GmbH & Co. KG, to supply and finance 61 new battery-powered trains for the Northern Westphalia region. The bidding was arranged by the regional transport authority Zweckverband Nahverkehr Westfalen-Lippe (NWL). The trains will be provided through a leasing arrangement.

The modern battery-powered trains, supplied by Siemens Mobility and called BEMUs, are the latest generation of rolling stock and will be deployed on routes in the Northern Westphalia network starting in December 2029. With the completion of this project, NWL will have Germany’s second largest fleet of battery-powered trains, marking a big step towards modernizing regional train travel and making it more environmentally friendly.

Rock Rail Holdings Limited is a UK-based independent developer, owner, asset manager, and lessor of rolling stock and other rail infrastructure, founded in 2014. Since 2016, the company has acquired over £3 billion of rail assets. 

K&L Gates regularly advises Rock Rail Holdings Limited on the acquisition and financing of rolling stock for regional passenger transport in Germany. This includes advising Rock Rail and Infracapital on rail projects in January and May 2024, which involved operating lease arrangements and financing for multiple Lots of the MDSB 2025+ electric trains, as well as on a September 2025 transaction concerning operating lease agreements for battery-electric passenger trains. 

The German team advising Rock Rail Holdings Limited was jointly led by partners Dr. Frank Thomas (Banking & Asset Finance, Frankfurt) and Dr. Annette Mutschler-Siebert (Procurement Law, Berlin), with support from partner Christoph Mank (Corporate, Berlin), counsels Anne Thümmel-Barz and Marion Baumann, and associates Patrick Glück and Maxim Horvath.