ACCORDING to the German Press Agency and several newspapers, the Berlin Senate and Berlin Brandenburg Transport Association (VBB) have awarded a contract to a consortium of incumbent S-Bahn Berlin and a joint venture of Stadler and Siemens Mobility to operate north-south and east-west services.
The deal will require the production of an additional 1400 S-Bahn cars similar to the trains already 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 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. Whilst the courts have partly agreed with Alstom’s complaints, they have not reversed the previous tender.
When the current tender began in 2020 it was envisaged the final 15-year contracts would be awarded after a preliminary competitive tender. Companies could bid for four individual lots. One option was to supply vehicles and maintain them for 30 years and/or to operate both the east-west Stadtbahn and north-south routes. Bidders could bid for individual lots as well as for both networks and the trains.
Alstom objected to the process allowing a single consortium to bid to build, maintain and operate the trains. It is understood that Alstom only offered bids to supply and maintain trains.
It is likely that further legal challenges will follow the confirmation of the preferred bidders in mid-September.
If further legal challenges do not delay the process again, the new contracts will begin in June 2029 for the Stadtbahn sub-network and in June 2030 for the north-south sub-network.
The new contracts once finalised will be implemented in several stages and the new train fleet introduced over several years.
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