[DE] Siemens Mireo Plus B starts testing in HLB Westerwald pilot project

Earlier in 2023, Siemens and HLB announced a new pilot project to deliver three Mireo Plus B battery trains for the German Westerwald region. To start testing ahead of the new units being delivered, a Mireo destined for SWEG has now been made available.

The new trains are set to operate on the difficult RB90 Oberwesterwaldbahn/Siegstrecke and RB29 Unterwesterwaldbahn lines. The difficulty lies in the steep gradients the trains must mitigate, with a total height difference of around 350 meters on the mostly unelectrified RB90.

It then comes as no surprise Siemens and HLB want to start testing early to see if the current technology is feasible. Zugbilder_RLP (Check them out!) caught SWEG Mireo 563 011/111 built for the Ortenau S-Bahn Netz out testing testing at Staffel (DE) on 29.08.2023:

Related posts:

[DE / Expert] Mireo+B for Baden-Württemberg – update [DE / Expert] Sneak peek: This is the Mireo Plus B for BaWü Netz 8 [DE / Expert] Testing, testing: The SFBW Mireo BEMU in Wegberg-Wildenrath [DE] BEMUs for the Westerwald – Siemens Mireo in HLB design [updated]