Railway company Niederbarnimer Eisenbahn (NEB) has unveiled plans to replace diesel locomotives with the first battery-powered trains, beginning in December 2024.
The company has ordered 31 new carbon-neutral Mireo Plus B trains from Siemens for the 10 East Brandenburg lines between Berlin and the Polish border.
These trains will use the overhead contact lines on electrified sections of the route to charge the batteries and power the trains on non-electrified sections, which makes them extremely energy efficient. The trains will run on zero emissions as soon as the railway’s electricity comes entirely from renewable sources.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is financing the project with an investment loan of up to €95 million ($107 million) for the development and purchase of the trains. The European Commission is supporting the project with funds from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) for Transport and the NER program. KfW IPEX-Bank, NordLB and Alpha T