[DE] New livery for refreshed ET424s for Köln

In the second part of their career, DB Regio’s ET423/424/425/426 get more colourful again. In Hannover, there are now 425s in blue and white, the Bodensee-Oberschwaben-Bahn has dark blue 426s, and Stuttgart is repainting 423s in light grey. Now Köln will have its turn:

This article was first published on 02.05.2023 and updated on 18.11.2023. We thank Bernd Magiera for his extraordinary picture.

This story is related to the Hannover case. With the arrival of new FLIRT XXL trains in that area, a fleet of ET424s became redundant. These are reallocated to Munich (16x) and Cologne (24x), which need extra units to expand their fleets.

The Cologne units are being refreshed in Kiel, Krefeld, and Hannover. They’re getting a new colour scheme that differentiates them from other DB Regio sets: light grey bodies with dark grey window sections and end cars half in red. The doors remained white.

Units in the new design have been spotted since April 2023 – Now we can show you a picture of such a train, made available by Bernd Magiera:

DB Regio / S-Bahn Kölln 424 017/517 in Beckrath on 15.11.2023 @ Bernd Magiera
DB Regio / S-Bahn Kölln 424 017/517 in Beckrath on 15.11.2023 @ Bernd Magiera