THE Berlin Senate and Berlin Brandenburg Transport Association (VBB) have confirmed that a contract with a consortium of incumbent operator S-Bahn Berlin, and a joint venture of Stadler and Siemens Mobility, to operate north-south and east-west S-Bahn services for a 15-year term, has become legally binding.
The deal will require the production of 1400 S-Bahn cars, formed into 350 four-car trains. The trains are similar to those previously produced by Stadler-Siemens for the earlier Ringbahn tender, which was awarded to S-Bahn Berlin, a subsidiary of German Rail’s DB Regio division.
The contract includes a 30-year maintenance agreement.
The current tender has been underway since 2020 but was challenged in court by Alstom which lost out to Stadler-Siemens for the initial order for new trains in 2015. While the courts have partly agreed with Alstom’s complaints, they have not reversed the previous tender, and last month Alstom confirmed that it would no longer appeal the contract award.
Discontent
The deal has not been welcomed in some quarters, with lobby groups Rail for All and One S-Bahn for All describing it as partial privatisation. “If no countermeasures are taken, the Berlin S-Bahn as we know it today will cease to exist by 2031,” they say.
“Under the guise of a state-owned company for rolling stock, a complex structure of multiple public-private partnerships (PPP) is being created. Among the potential consequences are: increased structural complexity, higher costs due to more infrastructure, blurred lines of responsibility and longer bureaucratic processes.”
Rail for All claims German taxpayers will foot the bill. “Thanks to the fairytale of competition, costs have at least doubled from the original €8bn and, in the end, they might end up at three times that amount,” says Carl Waßmuth, Rail for All spokesperson.
U-Bahn order
Separately, Berlin transport authority BVG has made a third call-off from a framework agreement with Stadler for 166 large-profile J-series U-Bahn cars. The order, worth €313m, will provide CBTC-equipped trains for lines U5 and U8.
The €3bn framework deal for up to 1500 cars was agreed in 2020, with an initial firm order for 376 cars to be formed into two- and four-car trains, comprising 140 small-profile JK-series cars and 236 J-series cars. This was followed in December 2024 by a second call-off for 108 J-Series cars for lines U5 to U9. The most recent order takes the number of cars on order to 650, above the minimum of 606 cars specified in the framework contract.
BVG is preparing a comprehensive modernisation plan for the Berlin U-Bahn which is due to be presented by October. In the meantime, the authority has agreed to tender for a new generation of ticket machines, with a phased replacement programme scheduled to start in 2029.
“Now is the right time to make the Berlin U-Bahn fit for the future,” says Henrik Falk, CEO of BVG. “With CBTC, we are relying on globally proven technology and directly linking the renewal of our vehicle fleet with the modernisation of our infrastructure. This combination will make the U-Bahn more efficient, stable and even more reliable in the future.”
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