Railroad - The wait for new trains in the northwest continues
The expansion of rail transport in Bremen and parts of Lower Saxony continues to falter. As the rail technology company Alstom announced on Monday, 34 new trains for the Bremen-Lower Saxony express hub will not be delivered until 2025 instead of the end of 2024. The reasons given were the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine, which would have led to long-term staff shortages and material bottlenecks.
The express cross is to connect the cities of Bremen, Bremerhaven, Oldenburg, Osnabrück, Norddeich, Hanover and Wilhelmshaven. Alstom was awarded the contract for the delivery of 34 double-decker trains in 2021 by the Landesnahverkehrsgesellschaft (LNVG). Alstom has also been commissioned to maintain the trains for 30 years. The contract is worth around 760 million euros.
However, it was announced a year ago that Alstom would only be able to deliver 10 of the 34 trains by December 2024. The manufacturer will now not be able to meet this date either. The company stated that it regrets the postponed start of delivery. The entire fleet will only be available by the end of 2025. In order to achieve this, a single-digit million sum has been invested in the expansion of the Salzgitter production site.
In order to bridge the time until the new trains are delivered, the company will also organize modern electric trains as a replacement, it said. This will ensure that the planned rail traffic can continue.
"It is extremely annoying that there is this new delay," said Dirk Altwig, spokesman for the regional transport company. He emphasized: "Alstom is contractually obliged to provide a replacement." This applies to the trains, but also to their maintenance and staff training.
"We will of course now check again what claims we could have as a result of this new postponement," said the LNVG spokesperson. However, the consequences for passengers should be limited. "We are confident that Alstom will do everything it can to cushion the impact on rail passengers," said Altwig.
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Source: www.stern.de
