German railway company Deutsche Bahn (DB) will invest €1bn in purchasing 30 high-speed trains to expand its long-distance fleet.
The company has so far ordered 137 ICE 4, 23 ECx and 17 KISS trains for the coming years.
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This decision was approved by the company’s supervisory board and comes barely a month after DB unveiled plans to introduce more international services.
The new trains will mainly serve the Cologne-Rhine-Main and Munich-Berlin high-speed lines. They will add around 11,400 seats to the service from December 2022 and each train will also be equipped with eight bicycle spaces.
This move is a part of the company’s ‘Strong Rail strategy’ to double the long-distance passenger numbers.
Additionally, Deutsche Bahn Long Distance has planned to set aside €500m for the expansion of its maintenance depots for ICE trains.
The depot at Frankfurt-Griesheim will be expanded to increase its capacity to service trains and the Cottbus depot will also be extended as part of the investment.
The DB supervisory board approved the investments during its meeting on 7 November and are expected to create an additional 600 jobs.
The board also approved a change in the structure of the management board. DB named Sigrid Nikutta as the chair and CEO of DB Cargo.
Last month, DB and Rail.One inaugurated a plant in Schwandorf, Germany. The plant produces prestressed concrete turnout sleepers and will be operated by Rail.One Schwandorf for 15 years.
In February, DB announced plans to invest €10.7bn ($12.1bn) this year to modernise the railway network across Germany.
