GERMANY: Abellio Rail Südwest has formally signed a €215m contract for Bombardier Transportation to supply 43 Talent 2 electric multiple-units for use on the Neckartal services which it is to operate from June 2019 under the Land of Baden-Württemberg’s Stuttgart Netz 1a contract.
The order announced on June 7 is being financed using the ‘Baden-Württemberg model’, whereby the operator procures the vehicles which are then sold to Land rail authority SFBW and leased back to the operator.
The contract covers 24 three-car and 19 five-car EMUs, with 163 or 273 seats, space for 24 or 39 bicycles and passenger wi-fi. They are to be built at Bombardier’s plant in Hennigsdorf with bogies supplied from Siegen, and all 43 are scheduled to enter service by June 2020.
‘Abellio has already established a long-standing successful collaboration with Bombardier’, said Abellio CEO Stephan Krenz at the contract signing. ‘We consider the company a reliable partner and together with them we will happily provide our passengers with a comfortable and safe travel experience’, he added. ‘We also want to set new standards in Baden-Württemberg that attain the same quality of leadership as we have achieved on the Nordrhein-Westfalen networks.’
