Money Buzz! Europa

Tag: train

  • EIB provides support for new hybrid regional trains in Italy

    EIB provides support for new hybrid regional trains in Italy

    The trains will be less polluting and more efficient, and almost half will be for southern Italy.

    This is the goal of €450 million in European Investment Bank (EIB) financing for FS Italiane (parent company of the Trenitalia transport company).

    €150 million of the total has already been finalised via the subscription of a corporate bond under FS’ EMTN programme, concluded by way of private placement, confirming the group’s commitment to sustainable finance.

    The recently subscribed operation will finance the purchase of the first 43 trainsets ordered of a total of 135 covered by Trenitalia’s investment plan.

    The new trains will operate on internal routes in Southern Italy

    The new trains will operate on internal routes in several Italian regions (including Calabria, Lazio, Molise, Sardinia, Sicily, Tuscany and Valle d’Aosta).

    The 135 hybrid trainsets will have three or four passenger carriages.

    The trains will be equipped with cutting-edge motors for non-electrified lines, with a pantograph for electrified lines and batteries for the last mile of non-electrified lines, thereby avoiding the use of fuel and the related emissions close to urban centres.

    Trenitalia’s overall investment for this kind of train totals almost €960 million, covering the renewal of regional fleets on lines where electrification is not yet complete.

  • Germany to invest 86 billion euros in rail modernization

    Germany to invest 86 billion euros in rail modernization

    • Germany has pledged to put 86 billion euros into the upkeep and modernization of its railways over the next decade.
    • The government will be footing 62 billion, while the German rail company Deutsche Bahn (DB) will pony up the remaining 24 billion.
    • The two sides signed the contract guaranteeing the investments – the biggest ever in German history – in Berlin on Tuesday, 14 January 2020.

    The volume of investment represented a 54 percent increase over the previous administrative period. Part of the money will be used to renew around 2000 kilometers of tracks and 2000 switching points every year.

    2000 railways bridges will also be renovated by the year 2030. Seven billion euros will be spent on signal-box technology alone. Deutsche Bahn has said it wants to increase its fleet of super-fast ICE 4 trains from 39 to 137.

    “The record size of this investment – plus the scope of areas it involves – will offer a wealth of opportunities for foreign companies as well as German firms to get involved,” says Germany Trade & Invest (GTAI) transportation expert Stefan Di Bitonto. “In fact companies from around the world are already taking part in the modernization process.”

    Deutsche Bahn wants to see regular high-speed connections operating at quick intervals between all of Germany’s larger cities and is targeting 260 million passengers a year by 2030.

    The emphasis on rail is part of Germany’s ambitious strategy to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and Deutsche Bahn CEO Richard Lutz has argued in the past that rail is “the only truly green mode of transport.”