Germany: A consortium of manufacturers and national operator Deutsche Bahn (DB) have signed a contract to supply trains and run transport services on two-thirds of the S-Bahn network in the country capital, following a tender.
DB will operate the lines for 15 years, while Siemens Mobility and Stadler jointly supply 350 four-car trainsets and provide 30 years of maintenance on them. The contract is valued at around €15 bln in total.
The new trains build on the 483/484 series (pictured) that the same consortium supplied for the S-Bahn between 2020 and 2023. This generation gets upgraded fire safety and cyber security systems, automatic retractable gap fillers to close the space between train and platform, and a more energy-efficient traction drive. The exterior design stays the same.
Running on a 750 V DC third rail, the trains will reach a maximum speed of 100 km/h with 1 m/s² acceleration. Each set seats 196 passengers, including 40 tip-up seats, for a total capacity of 386. The saloon includes space for prams and wheelchairs plus a dedicated bicycle area, and each side has 12 double-leaf doors, 1.3 m wide.
The tender has been running since August 2020 and hit repeated delays, not least legal challenges from Alstom. The French manufacturer had already lost the first S-Bahn Berlin order to the Siemens Mobility-Stadler consortium back in 2015, and in June it confirmed it would no longer contest this latest award.
Berlin-Brandenburg transport authority VBB originally planned to launch the first train in June 2029. After all the delays, that’s now been pushed to early 2032, with the full fleet expected in service by 2038.
