A nonwoven fabric-laying device, in particular a cross-laying device, and an operating method are provided. The nonwoven fabric-laying device (1) is used for folding down and depositing a supplied fibrous sheet (3) to form a multi-layered nonwoven fabric (32) and, for conveying the sheet, has a plurality of linearly movably guided carriages (10 to 16) which are driven by a carriage drive and has a plurality of conveyor belts (7, 8) guided by means of the carriages (10 to 16). One or more carriages (10 to 16) are directly driven by an electric linear motor (19).