ALSTOM has signed a €60m contract with German Rail (DB)-subsidiary S-Bahn Hamburg to provide onboard ETCS and ATO equipment for 82 class 490 EMUS.
Alstom will equip four three-car prototype trains at its Berlin plant and manage their recertification for operation on the national network by 2029. The new equipment will enable ATO at Grade of Automation 2 (GoA2).
The contract includes the delivery of onboard equipment that will be retrofitted to the remaining 78 EMUs. Additionally, Alstom will support the serial retrofitting process, which will be carried out by German Rail (DB).
The trains to be retrofitted, which can take power at 1.2kV dc from the side-contact third rail or 15kV ac overhead, are from the first batch of class 490 EMUs ordered from Bombardier in 2013. A second batch of 64 trains was subsequently delivered by Alstom with ETCS and ATO already installed.
“The combination of digitalisation and automation is the key to more green mobility on rail,” says Tim Dawidowsky, president of the Central and Northern Europe region at Alstom. “It allows shorter headways and higher passenger numbers while at the same time reducing energy consumption.”
Since 2018 S-Bahn Hamburg, the city of Hamburg and Siemens have been working on a project to create Germany’s first automated S-Bahn network. Siemens is responsible for the ATO wayside for the project.
