Talgo — a Spanish manufacturer of intercity, standard and high-speed passenger trains, with facilities world-wide — has signed a framework agreement to deliver up to 100 conventional long-distance trains to Deutsche Bahn (DB), Europe’s largest railway operator.

The first batch of 23 trains — worth about 550 million euros — will have a maximum speed of 230kph.

Talgo (www.talgo.com) succeeded in winning the order (after a European public bidding procedure) for trains with a configuration that is common in Germany: one locomotive (developed by Talgo) and a set of coaches with a driver’s cabin at the end (to allow push-pull services).

Deliveries of the first units are scheduled for the end of 2023; DB is planning to operate these trains on both national and international routes.

This project is not the first one for Talgo in Germany, although it is considered to be the most ambitious; 25 years ago, the company opened a maintenance workshop in Berlin, where maintenance work on all kinds of rolling stock is undertaken.

In addition, Talgo trains have connected Moscow and Berlin (through Belarus and Poland) since 2016; thanks to their tilting and variable-gauge systems, they can reach higher speeds in curves, and they can cross the border between European gauge (1,435mm) and Russian gauge (1,520mm) without stopping.