Siemens (www.siemens.com) has been commissioned by the German state of Hesse to build an overhead contact line for electrified freight transport on a 10km stretch of autobahn, marking the first test of the eHighway system on a public highway in Germany.

It will be installed on the A5 federal autobahn between the Zeppelinheim/ Cargo City Süd interchange at Frankfurt Airport and the Darmstadt/Weiterstadt interchange.

Siemens will be responsible for the planning, construction and maintenance of the system, which is being built as part of the Electrified, innovative heavy freight transport on autobahns (ELISA) project being undertaken by Germany’s Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB).

Hessen Mobil, which is responsible for road and transport management in Hesse, is managing the project.

Meanwhile, Siemens has been contracted to deliver 57 Mireo trains to Deutsche Bahn’s local transport unit DB Regio.

The contract is the second order for Siemens’ new regional and commuter train ‘platform’, following its launch last year.

The trains will be built at Siemens’ Krefeld facility and will operate on the Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn regional suburban rail network.

Sabrina Soussa, CEO of Siemens’ high-speed trains, regional trains and locomotives business, said: “We are especially pleased by the trust DB Regio is placing in us with this follow-up order. This marks a further important milestone for the latest generation of our regional train, the Mireo.”