TÜV SÜD
TÜV SÜD Commences Tests on New Talgo ICE L Trains for Deutsche Bahn
This article first appeared in the Railway-News Magazine Issue 1 2024.
Having signed a framework contract in February 2019 for the delivery of a maximum of 100 new ICE L trains for German national railway company Deutsche Bahn (DB), the Spanish highspeed passenger train manufacturer Talgo has started the testing process with TÜV SÜD.
ICE L is a long-distance locomotive-hauled push-pull train. The coachset can consist of a combination of 9 to 21 cars. The standard configuration is 256m long and consists of one locomotive and 17 articulated cars. Each car is connected to the neighbouring car with a single-axle bogie, with double-axle bogies only at each end of the set. This gives each train 20 axles, in addition to those of the associated locomotive. Each unit will be delivered with a multi-system-electric Talgo Travca locomotive.
Talgo has commissioned TÜV SÜD to execute the complete package of tests, that are performed on the public network of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands. This is achieved by working in close co-operation with RailAdventure, a Munich-based rail operation company specialising in rail operations. TÜV SÜD started a full set of homologation tests on two trainsets in parallel in August. The first tests focused on safety against derailment in accordance with EN 14363. This was performed on the instrumented curved track in TÜV SÜD’s rolling stock test centre in Görlitz, Germany. Tests are expected to continue throughout 2023 and 2024, and once these tests are completed, the first train of this type – tested and inspected by TÜV SÜD – is expected to begin operating in 2025.
