Deutsche Bahn awarded Siemens Mobility a EUR 1 billion contract for the supply of 30 additional ICE high-speed trains, with an option for 60 additional trains.
Expected to be delivered starting 2022 until 2026, the new trains will increase DB’s fleet by 20%.
The trains will initially run on the railway routes between the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and Munich via the high-speed Cologne-Rhine-Main line. The ICE high-speed trains will increase the daily passenger capacity on these mainline routes by 13,000 seats.
“DB is investing in new trains at a record level. Our fleet will be getting state-of-the-art additions with the new ICE trains, and our passengers will benefit from more seats, greater comfort and higher speeds by the end of 2022. Even though demand has sharply declined due to the corona pandemic, everything speaks in favor of climate-friendly rail transport for the longer term. That’s why we’re committed to growth,” Richard Lutz, CEO of Deutsche Bahn said.
As the most important requirement for the ICE order is the rapid delivery, the ICE high-speed trains will be based on ICE 3 platform. “Siemens and DB have long enjoyed a highly successful partnership. The most important requirement for the ICE order was to get the new trains on the rails very quickly. We can do exactly that by relying on our proven Velaro platform,” Roland Busch, Deputy CEO of Siemens AG said.
They will have a capacity of 440 seats each and will be able to run at a top speed of 320 km/h. They will offer passengers greater comfort and convenience with features like frequency-transparent windows for stable mobile phone reception and space for transporting bicycles.
The new trains will be manufactured at Siemens plants in North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria and Austria.
“The new, ultra-modern ICE trains make rail travel even more attractive –also because high-performance high-speed trains, along with modern rail infrastructure, are a key prerequisite for increasing the frequency of nation-wide rail service,” Andreas Scheuer, Germany’s Minister for Transport said.
By 2026, DB’s ICE fleet will have 421 trains providing 220,000 seats for passengers traveling on the German railway network.
In November 2019, Deutsche Bahn has approved a EUR 1 billion investment for train procurement. At the same time, the federal government announced it would be reducing the value-added tax on mainline rail tickets as of the beginning of 2020.
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