Abellio Order Bombardier TALENT 2 Trains
Abellio Rail Südwest GmbH has ordered 43 TALENT 2 Trains from Bombardier Transportation in a €215 million contract. The trains will operate passenger services in the Neckar Valley region in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. They will be delivered from June 2019. The multiple-unit trains will be manufactured at Bombardier’s Hennigsdorf facility in Germany. The bogies will be manufactured at Bombardier’s Siegen plant in Germany.
Bombardier TALENT 2
The Bombardier TALENT 2 trains will be in a 24 three-car and 16 five-car configuration, the former featuring 163 seats and the latter 273 seats. Thy will be fitted with on-board wifi and be universally accessible, with space for wheelchairs as well as 24 or 39 bicycles.
In excess of 350 Bombardier TALENT 2 trains are operational on the German rail network. They are the mainstay for national rail operator Deutsche Bahn’s regional fleet, as well as Abellio, National Express and the Southwestern German Transport Company (SWEG). The design of the TALENT 2 means it can be adapted to both commuter and regional use.
This contract is many in a line of recent tenders won by Bombardier in Baden-Württemberg. Bombardier supplied Deutsche Bahn Regio AG with the TALENT 2 for the Gäu-Murr regional network. The mode of vehicle financing, now known as the “Baden-Württemberg Model”, supports financing for both networks. The financing arrangement has the transport company selling the vehicles to the regional rail authority of Baden-Württemberg (Landesanstalt Schienenfahrzeuge Baden Württemberg, SFBW), and the regional rail authority then leases them back to the transport company.
Stephan Krenz, Abellio CEO, said:
“Abellio has already established a long-standing successful collaboration with Bombardier, which we will now continue in the Neckar Valley region network. We consider the company a reliable partner and together with them we will happily provide our passengers with a comfortable and safe travel experience on the way to their destination. With these new vehicles, we also want to set new standards in Baden-Württemberg that attain the same quality of leadership as we have achieved on the North Rhine-Westphalia networks.”
Germar Wacker, President of Mainline and Metros, Central/Eastern Europe at Bombardier Transportation, said:
“This order is a great achievement for Bombardier’s rail business and it also signifies the continuation of our successful and cooperative relationship with Abellio. We are pleased that Abellio relies on our modern TALENT 2 trains to further expand its mobility offering in Germany. These vehicles feature a high degree of passenger comfort and score points with their strong performance in terms of energy efficiency and reliability.”