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Deutsche Bahn AG’s board recently approved a plan to take ownership of all shares in the English Welsh & Scottish Railway Holding Ltd. (EWS) and acquire a majority stake in Spanish company Transportes Ferroviarios Especiales (Transfesa).

EWS provides freight-rail services in the United Kingdom and France; Transfesa provides transportation and logistics services for automotive, bulk and general cargo.

The acquisitions will expand Deutsche Bahn’s presence in the European transport market, especially the freight-rail sector, and extend the company’s central corridors in western Europe, according to Deutsche Bahn. In addition, the transactions will boost the company’s business position in France, where EWS subsidiary Euro Cargo Rail has a foothold, and solidify cooperative efforts with French railway SNCF, Deutsche Bahn said.

“The expansion of our Europe-wide network is our answer to the increasingly complex demands of our customers,” said DB Logistics Chairman Norbert Bensel in a prepared statement. “EWS and Transfesa will enable us to close important gaps in the DB Logistics freight-rail network.”