Europe: ‘We see a supply gap for hauled coaches and locos’

Leoš Novotný, founder of Leo Express and the Leo Mobility Management rolling stock leasing company, explains to Benjámin Zelki how his latest venture will function as a ‘Booking.com for rail operators’, providing fast access to rolling stock and financing while disrupting the established Rosco model. ‘We see a supply gap for quick, scaleable solutions on the European passenger rolling stock market’, says Leoš Novotný, founder of the Leo Mobility Management rolling stock leasing company, speaking exclusively to Railway Gazette International on the back of InnoTrans 2026.

Novotný, who is perhaps best known as the founder of open access operator Leo Express in 2010, says the size of the gap is significant. ‘We identify a demand for at least 3 000 passenger coaches and 300 locomotives, primarily on international main lines, both second-hand and new-build. This is all by the year of 2030 and across all European operators, including publicly owned or private’, he predicts.

He explains that Leo Mobility Management was set up in 2025 as a rolling stock leasing company to address this gap in the market. Subsequently, ‘we engineered the Trainshop.com platform to provide procurement and financing all in one’, he adds. ‘This market need was identified by an analysis carried out by Berlin-based market research consultancy SCI Verkehr, which we commissioned in October 2023 for €50 000.’

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