On November 19, 2024, Rock Rail and ABRDN Core Infrastructure revealed their latest investment: 31 Alstom-built Talent 3 EMUs. Initially designed for Austrian operator ÖBB, these trains will (continue to) run on German routes, on the Baden-Württemberg and Saale-Thuringia-Southern Harz (STS) networks. This deal represents Rock Rail’s fourth major train purchase in Germany:
In Baden-Württemberg
Here, Rock Rail only delivers a very general text. The State of Baden-Württemberg delivers numerous rail infrastructure projects to support the region’s targets to reduce carbon emissions and double rail passenger demand. Stuttgart, the region’s largest city, is getting a new, underground main station to replace its old ground-level terminus – the €10bn+ project is flanked by the project Digitaler Knoten Stuttgart (DKS), which rolls out ETCS Level 2 in the whole Stuttgart rail node increasing the capacity of the existing infrastructure. Talent 3 Plus is joining a complementary anchor fleet of Talent 3 trains, and its ETCS capability will match the trains to the infrastructure.
In Thüringen
In Thüringen, the Talent 3 Plus fleet will operate on the Saale-Thuringia-Südharz (STS) network, which Abellio Rail Mitteldeutschland will manage until 2030. These units will enhance capacity on the RB 25 line between Halle and Saalfeld, complementing the existing fleet of Talent trains leased to Abellio.
About Talent3
The Talent3 is the final step of Bombardier’s Talent family of passenger trains. It was produced in Hennigsdorf. Meanwhile, Bombardier has been sold to Alstom, which decided to stop developing these trains and sell all intellectual property and related key engineering personnel to CAF from Spain.
Rock Rail now calls its fleet ‘Talent 3 Plus’. The EMUs have a top speed of 160 km/h, PRM toilets, built-in ramps for boarding, category “B” fire certificates for operations in tunnels of any length and feature ETCS Level 2.
- Railcolor comments: This deal ends years of uncertainty for an unwanted fleet. ÖBB originally ordered 21 units for Austria’s Vorarlberg region in 2016 and another 25 for South Tyrol in 2018. However, after a lengthy approval process, ÖBB cancelled all contracts in 2021. Since then, the manufacturer, Bombardier, has been left holding several dozen of these completed units. Thankfully, some of these trains were able to address train shortages of German passenger operators in the past years.
- To us, it was never known how many trains Bombardier had completed for ÖBB when the contract was cancelled. This new deal mentions ’31’. There must be two subtypes: 15kV 16 2/3 Hz only (class 4758 / 6442) trains and those also compatible with 25kV 50Hz AC voltage systems (class 4758 022-etc), the ones with mountains on their sides).
Rock Rail’s fourth major rolling stock acquisition in Germany
This investment is the fourth significant rolling stock acquisition by Rock Rail in Germany:
- On 02.08.2022, Rock Rail and ABRDN Core Infrastructure financed 17 Coradia Max EMUs for the Main-Weser Network;
- On 21.12.2023, Rock Rail and Infracapital established a platform for Lot 1 of the Leipzig Central German S-Bahn Network 2025+, financing 18 Siemens Mireo 4-car EMUs set to enter service in December 2026 for Netinera/Die Länderbahn;
- On 16.05.2024, Rock Rail and Infracapital closed the financing of 41 Siemens Mireo 3-car trains for Lot 2 of the same Network (DB Regio).
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