On 4 December 2015, the Chairman of the Management Board of Deutsche Bahn, Dr Rüdiger Grube, and the Federal Minister of Transport and Digital Infrastructure of Germany, Alexander Dobrindt, launched the latest high speed train of the German fleet, the ICE (Intercity express) 4, in the presence of Dr Jochen Eickholt, CEO of the Mobility Division of Siemens AG, and Berthold Huber, Member of the DB Board for Transport.
During this launch, Dr Rüdiger Grube said “With the ICE 4, a new era begins for transport. It allows our company to adopt a sustainable approach in the future”. Alexander Dobrindt added: “Today will go down as a milestone for the modernisation of the train fleet thanks to the ICE 4. We are investing billions of euros in infrastructure to make the train even more competitive”.
This new train, which is already considered as “the backbone of future long distance rail transport” by Berthold Huber, shall enter service as of December 2017 and progressively replace the ICE 1 and 2. The 346 metre-long train, with 830 seats – including 205 in 1st and 625 in 2nd class – and with a line speed of 250km/h, will also use less energy per passenger (up to 22%) than a recent version of the ICE 1.
