Expert knowledge that sets the course for success

Get to know our leading experts in our departments.

The managers, experts and teams at NEXTRAIL work closely together to implement projects across departmental boundaries to solve even the most complex tasks quickly and efficiently with agile processes.

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NEXTRAIL was founded in 2016 to provide national and international railway operators and manufacturers with the highest level of expertise. With a team of proven experts who, based on their many years of experience, are able to deliver intelligent, practical results in a targeted manner. Not complicated – but client-oriented and smart.

60+

Brilliant minds and motivated employees are the secret of our success. Today at NEXTRAIL, a well-coordinated interdisciplinary team of over 60 employees advises renowned national and international operators and manufacturers in the railway sector on the analysis, design, implementation, migration and commissioning of their systems –

competent across all technical domains

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Because customer proximity is a key factor for NEXTRAIL – even in an increasingly digital world – we now have six locations in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Decision makers in the railway sector and their teams rely on NEXTRAIL’s partnership-based cooperation and interdisciplinary expertise to help them set the course for their projects. With its comprehensive technical and process know-how as well as system knowledge spanning many applications, NEXTRAIL is present where the future of railways is shaped sustainably.

 

Our practical, customer-specific solutions are based on a holistic view of the relationships between operations, technology and organisation.

Experte Dipl.-Ing. Steffen Jurtz

Dipl.-Ing. Steffen Jurtz

Managing director
Berlin office
Steffen Jurtz has been one of the managing directors of NEXTRAIL GmbH since 2017. His excellent reputation in the railway industry as a proven expert in the field of control and safety technology is based on his more than 25 years of professional experience as a consultant and partner for lighthouse projects in the area of control and safety technology for well-known railway operators and industry in Germany and abroad.
Experte Dr. Michael Leining

Dr Michael Leining

Managing director
Frankfurt am Main office
Dr Michael Leining is the managing director of NEXTRAIL GmbH. As a driver of the digitisation of the railways, he works closely with pioneering thinkers, decision makers and committees in the railway sector, advising railway and infrastructure operators on technology and transformation projects at the national and international level.

Dr Albrecht Achilles

Member of the Executive Board, Head of ATO/ TMS
Berlin office
Dr Albrecht Achilles is a member of the Executive Board and Head of ATO/TMS at NEXTRAIL GmbH. His broad specialist expertise is based on many years of experience as a technical consultant for control-command and signalling system, both on the operator and the manufacturer side. Dr Albrecht Achilles focuses on the technical area of the European Train Control System (ETCS), automatic train operation (ATO), traffic management systems (TMS) and signalling controlled warning systems (SCWS).
Expertin Dr.-Ing. Sonja-Lara Bepperling

Dr Sonja-Lara Bepperling

Member of the Executive Board, Head of Railway Safety, Registered inspector for equivalent safety and risk assessment
Frankfurt am Main office
Dr Sonja-Lara Bepperling is a member of the Executive Board and Head of Railway Safety at NEXTRAIL GmbH. For 15 years, she has been a proven expert in operational and technical risk analyses in the railway sector – in control-command and signalling system in particular. She possesses methodical expertise in risk and hazard analyses as well as in-depth knowledge of the processes involved in the approval processes.

Dipl.-Ing. Vincent Blateau

Member of the Executive Board, Head of Rolling Stock
Berlin office
Dipl.-Ing. Vincent Blateau is a member of the management team and Head of Rolling Stock at NEXTRAIL GmbH. He brings extensive cross-divisional expertise in signaling technology, including ETCS (European Train Control System), CBTC (Communication-Based Train Control), and ATO (Automatic Train Operation) from GoA 2 to GoA 4, as well as vehicle ETCS integration and rolling stock on-board units. Over the years, he has developed strong expertise in smart rolling stock retrofit projects, contributing significantly to the digitalization of the railway sector.
Experte Marco Gerlach

Dipl.-Wirtsch.-Ing. Marco Gerlach

Member of the Executive Board, Head of Railway Engineering
Brunswick office
Marco Gerlach is a member of the Executive Board and Head of Railway Engineering at NEXTRAIL GmbH. With over 20 years of professional experience on the manufacturing side, he has extensive operational and technical expertise in the railway sector as a consultant – in particular in the field of electronic interlockings with a focus on the German railway construction and operating regulation (EBO), the German tram construction and operating regulation (BOStrab) and control-command and signalling systems (CCS).

Olaf Gröpler

System Engineer, ETCS
Berlin office
Olaf Gröpler is a system engineer at NEXTRAIL GmbH in the field of ETCS and interfaces to neighbouring systems. With over 25 years of professional experience in the railway system, he is a nationally and internationally recognised operational and technical expert in the highly relevant economic and safety-related issues of braking and braking behaviour of rail rolling stocks in the context of ETCS and the desired increase in track capacity.
Experte Andreas Kaldenbach

Dr Andreas Kaldenbach

Member of the Executive Board, Head of Railway Strategy and Consulting
Frankfurt am Main office
Effective January 2023, Dr Andreas Kaldenbach became head of Railway Strategy and Consulting and a member of the Executive Board of NEXTRAIL GmbH. Dr Kaldenbach has proven himself to be a genuine railway enthusiast in management positions at Deutsche Bahn AG and has made a career as an expert dealing with challenging operational, technical and procedural issues in the railway sector.

Dipl. -Inform. (FH) Christian Klier

Railway consultant, ATO/TMS department
Berlin office
Christian Klier is a railway consultant in the ATO/TMS and ATO sensor technology department at NEXTRAIL GmbH. As a project manager and specialist for automatic train operation and with over 15 years of professional experience in the industry, he has extensive technical expertise both in the field of product development and interdisciplinary system integration.
Experte Jörg Liesche

Dipl.-Ing. Jörg Liesche

Member of the Executive Board, Principal Consultant
Berlin office
Jörg Liesche is Principal Consultant and Member of the Executive Board at NEXTRAIL GmbH. With over 25 years of professional experience on the manufacturer side and as a consultant, he has extensive operational and technical expertise – particularly in the area of ETCS and the interfaces to adjacent systems.

Thomas Strauß

Member of the Executive Board, Head of Software Engineering
Frankfurt am Main office
Thomas Strauß is a member of the Executive Board and Head of Software Engineering at NEXTRAIL GmbH. He has been working as a software solution architect in a leading position for decades. He is characterized by his high level of expertise in the area of business-critical, distributed, high-performance systems that are available around the clock. He has focused on the rail sector after working for well-known European companies (manufacturing, automotive).
Experte Benedikt Wenzel

Dr Benedikt Wenzel

Member of the Executive Board, Head of Railway Data
Berlin office
Dr Benedikt Wenzel is a member of the Executive Board and Head of Railway Data and system/RAMS engineering department at NEXTRAIL GmbH in accordance with EN 5012x. He has over ten years of experience in the fields of European Train Control System (ETCS) and safety. He is also a specialist in data management, including recording, processing and validation.

Committees and initiatives we support

Services

Complete process know-how. Intelligence from a single source.

Effective knowledge transfer, streamlined processes and quick access to in-depth technical expertise. Thanks to agile structures and experienced railway experts from a wide range of disciplines, NEXTRAIL is able to seamlessly cover all phases of the product life cycle of railway signalling systems.