Deutsche Bahn invests one billion EUR in 30 new ICE trains

Deutsche Bahn ICE Train

Deutsche Bahn is investing one billion euros in 30 new ICE trains, which will initially be used from 2022 in the rail connections between North Rhine-Westphalia and Munich on the Cologne/Rhine-Main high-speed line. The corresponding order has now been placed with Siemens Mobility, the railway company reports. With these new Ices, the space available for long-distance traffic for passengers will increase by 13,000 seats.

The new Ices of Deutsche Bahn have mobile phone permeable windows

As "innovative" with the new ICE trains the mobile phone permeable new windows are promoted, which are used for the first time with high-speed trains of the Deutsche Bahn. The windows are manufactured in a high-tech process. A fine grid is lasered into the heat-insulating layer of the windows, which allows the mobile radio waves to pass from the outside into the interior of the car. Both current and upcoming mobile communications standards are supported. However, Deutsche Bahn also explains: "The better the network coverage on the route, the higher the benefits of mobile phone-permeable windows."

In this report of May 2020, the German Federal Network Agency stated that Deutsche Telekom had a nationwide LTE coverage of 96.4 percent on the German railway lines. The figure for Vodafone is 95 percent and for Telefónica only 80.3 percent. However, the supply requirement for the network coverage is achieved with 100 percent in the German railway network.

30 new ICE trains. New windows are said to provide a greatly improved mobile radio reception.

By 2026, Deutsche Bahn plans to operate a total of 421 ICE trains with 220,000 seats in the German railway network. In addition to the now ordered 30 trains, there is also an option for 60 more new Ices. The new Ices will be manufactured at Siemens locations in North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria and Austria. All new Ices are based on the ICE 3 and each train has 440 seats and a maximum speed of 320 kilometers per hour.