As early as on March 18, 2020, the locomotive 163 022, which is the prototype of the locomotive series 163, was taken over from the ČD - Telematika supplier after the physical installation of ETCS and all other related components. The locomotive will now be in trial operation, the conditions of which have been set by the Rail Authority of the Czech Republic and which is planned until the end of April at the latest. Training of ČD Cargo employees took place at the beginning of March so that nothing hinders the test operation. In particular, the newly installed equipment such as the national train control system LS06, the electronic speedometer TELOC 3000 and others are the subject of tests. The ETCS is currently in a secure state (so called isolation mode).

On March 30, 2020, the locomotive 742.712 was taken over from the CZ LOKO supplier after the completion of the modernization including the installation of the ETCS train control system. Even in this case, the ETCS is still in a safe state (isolation mode) on the locomotive. At present, the engine is capable of operation on the nationwide and regional railways and sidings in the Czech Republic according to their standard conditions. The locomotive will reinforce the fleet in the Operational unit Praha, where the 742.711 engine already operates.

Equipping of the locomotive series 163 and 742.71 with the ETCS train control system is co-financed by the European Union Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) within the project called Deployment of ERTMS/ETCS on-board components compliant with ETCS Baseline 3 in ČD CARGO, a.s. vehicles on the Rail Freight/Core Network Corridors. The grant is provided by the EU Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA) on the basis of a concluded grant agreement, which is the result of a successful application for financial support submitted in the 2015 CEF Transport Cohesion Call.