GERMANY: The first three Stuttgart S-Bahn electric multiple-units to be refurbished have been unveiled by operator DB Regio and transport authority VRS ahead of their return to passenger service in February.
The €200m programme to refurbish 215 Class 423 and 430 EMUs is being undertaken at the DB workshops in Nürnberg and Hagen and Alstom’s sites at Hennigsdorf in Germany and Villeneuve in Switzerland.
Talbot in Aachen has repainted the cars with a grey livery which includes blue to highlight the multi-purpose areas for wheelchairs, puschairs and bicycles and yellow for first class.
Internal changes include upgrading the multipurpose areas with more space, improving passenger information and fitting power sockets. An automatic passenger counting system at the doors is designed to enable accurate predictions of loadings to be provided, enabling passengers to spread themselves along the train to reduce dwell times.
Completion is scheduled for 2026.
‘We want to win even more customers with tried-and-tested trains that are as good as new after the redesign’, said DB Regio Schiene board member Harmen van Zijderveld on January 16.
- The EMUs are also being equipped with ETCS and prepared for GoA2 attended semi-automated operation under the Digital Node Stuttgart programme. In the longer term VRS hopes to move to GoA4 driverless operation; it envisages that the section of route S2 between Vaihingen and Filderstadt could be used for trials.
