GERMAN chancellor, Mr Olaf Scholz, officially opened German Rail’s (DB) latest high-speed train maintenance facility at Cottbus, around 100km south of Berlin, on January 11.
The 445m-long two-track building is DB’s first dedicated facility for heavy maintenance of the fleet of 137 ICE4 trains, delivery of which was completed by Siemens last year.
The Cottbus facility was built in under two years and will allow all vehicles of either a single 374m-long XXL-ICE 13-car train or two 200m-long seven-car trains to be worked on simultaneously on each track. Unlike at other DB maintenance facilities, the cars of the ICE4 trains will not have to be uncoupled to fit in the depot, providing substantial time and cost savings.
DB says that the new depot will achieve a turnaround time of around two weeks for each train – the fastest it has ever achieved. During heavy overhauls the trains are partially dismantled, while major components such as traction motors and bogies are replaced.
The new works will initially employ 450 people, according to DB, with that number rising to around 1200 by 2026, when a second 570m-long four-track facility at the Cottbus site is due to be completed.
“The new plant at Cottbus sets the bar for similar projects across Germany,” Scholz says. “DB has developed a high-quality facility in a short period of time.”
Shortly after the Cottbus works opening the German government slashed rail spending for the next four years.
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