Deutsche Bahn speaks of a “refreshing cell cure”. In the next few years, the group will invest in its ICE trains.
Deutsche Bahn is expanding its ICE fleet and is ordering 73 more trains for a total of around two billion euros. 56 of these trains are the ICE L from the Spanish manufacturer Talgo, as the railway announced on Wednesday. It will initially run between Berlin and Amsterdam at a maximum speed of 230 kilometers per hour.
The 17 other trains are ICE 3 Neo, some of which the railway already has in use. It manages 300 kilometers per hour and is intended to be used in particular on the high-speed routes, for example between NRW and Frankfurt or Berlin and Munich. The ICE 3 Neo is built by Siemens Mobility.
With the order, Deutsche Bahn exhausts existing framework agreements with the manufacturers. The state-owned group presented the Talgo train for the first time in September last year and initially ordered 23 trains that should be on the road from October 2024. The additional 56 trains will be on the rails for the first time from 2026 and, according to Deutsche Bahn, should be fully delivered by 2030.
In the case of the ICE 3 Neo, the railways had ordered 73 trains to date, which are to be delivered by 2029. Now this order has been extended by 17 trains.
The average age of the ICE fleet is set to drop from 18 today to 12 by 2030. “DB will undergo a comprehensive rejuvenation in the coming years,” said long-distance transport board member Michael Peterson. “Already this year we will receive an average of three new ICE trains per month.”
Source: Stern
