Deutsche Bahn is in the process of a much-needed modernisation of its long-distance fleet with the aim of providing a more reliable train service. The updates should see the average age of its ICE and ICE trains drop to 12 years from 18 years currently by 2030.

However, public transport passenger association Pro Bahn fears that too many old trains are being decommissioned with new ones replacing them too slowly.

Board member Lukas Iffländer said some routes have fewer train services and less available seating. 

So what is the status of the modernisation plans?

ICE 4s – deliveries complete

The last of a total of 137 new ICE 4s from manufacturer Siemens Mobility was delivered to the railway in March of last year. It’s the first long-distance train with bicycle parking spaces.

Each train has at least 444 seats and can reach speeds of up to 265 kilometres per hour. These trains now form the backbone of the company’s ICE fleet, increasing the number of ICE trains from around 270 in 2017 to around 400 currently.

ICE 3 Neo – deliveries still ongoing

Deliveries of the ICE 3 Neo, a new version of the previous ICE 3 series, have been underway for several years.

Ninety of these trains are scheduled to be in service by 2028, with 15 added this year and 16 next year, according to Deutsche Bahn. One of their features is improved mobile phone reception, thanks to so-called ‘signal-permeable’ windows. 

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The Neo is currently used on the high-speed lines between North Rhine-Westphalia and Munich via Frankfurt and Stuttgart, as well as on international connections from Frankfurt to Amsterdam and Brussels.

READ ALSO: LISTED: The major rail disruption to prepare for in Germany this summer

ICE L – deliveries delayed

But the company’s order of the ICE L from Spanish manufacturer Talgo continues to be beset with delivery problems.

DB ordered 79 trains with the first ones set to have been in service last autumn. However, now, delivery is expected to take place in the second half of this year at the earliest, with four of the trains possibly arriving in 2025, according to the railway.

These trains look more like Intercity trains than ICE trains.

More trains, but still delays

“DB Fernverkehr’s fleet strategy has the clear goal of rejuvenating and modernising the fleet in order to stabilise operations,” the company said, adding that this goal was working.

The company said that the availability of the ICE 4 and ICE 3 Neo trains was significantly higher than with the older series. It said improved maintenance plans reduced the proportion of engine faults by 58 percent between 2019 and 2024.

But the new trains have not yet led to any increase in punctuality: more than a third of all long-distance trains are still delayed.

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“We will have fewer seats”

Passenger association Pro Bahn is not convinced by the railway’s figures.

“Overall, the rolling stock strategy seems extremely chaotic to us,” said board member Iffländer, primarily referring to the retirement of older trains.

“On many routes, we will have fewer seats, at least temporarily, until the new trains arrive at some point,” he added.

He explained that the east-west routes Wiesbaden-Frankfurt-Leipzig-Dresden and Hamburg-North Rhine-Westphalia-Bonn-Frankfurt-Nuremberg-Vienna were particularly affected, as there would often be no second train section in the future.

“For us passengers, this means, in a nutshell: It will be cramped and crowded. Transport transition – no, thank you,” said Iffländer.

Trains taken out of service

In April of this year, the railway took 14 older ICE 3 class 406 trains out of service.

Ten other 415 series trains – the so-called ICE T – are also considered to be high-maintenance and prone to failure so are scheduled to be gradually retired by the end of the year.

There are also around three dozen ICE 2 trains that have been in service since 1996. These are set to be gradually phased out by the end of 2027.

Finally, the railway recently sold 17 double-decker ‘Intercity 2 KISS’ trains to the Austrian Federal Railways. The railway had only acquired the trains second-hand in 2019 “to bridge delivery problems with other vehicles,” it stated. These have since been resolved.

Discontinued services?

Iffländer says it is questionable whether the trains taken out of service can be replaced quickly enough by the new models, some of which have been delayed. The consequences are already visible, he said.

“The early morning train from Leipzig will be discontinued when the timetable changes because it is currently operated with a five-car ICE T that’s scheduled to be retired at that time,” he explained.

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The railway admits that the ICE fleet size will be subject to slight fluctuations in the coming years as a result of the retirements and the arrival of new trains. In the medium term, however, the number would remain “at a comparable level with increasing seating numbers,” it said.

Less seating in practice

But Iffländer remains skeptical: “On paper, seating capacity will theoretically increase until 2029, but in practice, it will decrease due to poor fleet availability, as even new trains are often sitting broken down at the depots,” he said.

While the railway’s fleet is getting younger but not necessarily larger, its competitor Flixtrain recently announced a major train offensive: The company has ordered around 30 new express trains.

There is also an option for 35 additional trains as part of the 2.4 billion package, which includes maintenance, Flixtrain announced.

Flix has also ordered the trains from the Spanish manufacturer Talgo. It is unclear when they are scheduled for delivery.