The train manufacturer Alstom and the Mittelsachsen Transport Association (VMS) presented a new battery train developed by Alstom to the public in Chemnitz on August 21, 2023 battery train developed by Alstom to the public in Chemnitz on August 21, 2023, in the presence of State Secretary Michael Theurer from the German Federal Ministry of Transport.
VMS has ordered a total of eleven Coradia Continental battery trains. Mitteldeutsche Regiobahn (MRB) will start passenger service with the battery trains on the Chemnitz Leipzig line in 2024, replacing the existing diesel trains.
The train stopped for several hours as part of test runs for the approval process. At the invitation of
Mathias Korda , Managing Director of Verkehrsverbund Mittelsachsen GmbH (VMS), Sven Schulze,
Lord Mayor of Chemnitz and Chairman of the Zweckverband Verkehrsverbund Mittelsachsen (ZVMS),
welcomed curious visitors and high profile VIPs from politics and the rail industry. Among them were
Michael Theurer , Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of Digital Affairs and
Transport and Federal Government Commissioner for Rail Transport, Ines Fröhlich, State Secretary at
the Saxon State Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labor and Transport (SMWA), Müslüm Yakisan ,
President of the Germany, Austria and Switzerland (DACH) Region at Alstom, and Jan Kleinwechter ,
Managing Director of Transdev Regio Ost GmbH, which will operate the trains with Mitteldeutsche
Regiobahn (MRB) on RE 6
The Coradia Continental BEMU battery train: BEMU stands for Battery Electric Multiple Unit. It
charges its on board batteries via charging stations during stops at the station and can thus run
electrically on non electrified rail lines, meaning: inexpensively and environmentally friendly. This
technology will be used for the first time in timed local rail passenger services in the new German
states. From 2024, the MRB will operate eleven of these trains as RE 6 between Chemnitz and
Leipzig. They will have a range of up to 120 kilometers and will be recharged in Chemnitz and Leipzig.
The vehicles are three car trains and will generally run in double traction with a total of 300 seats.