ICE 4 fleet now complete

On 19 March 2024, the final, 137th ICE 4 was handed over to DB. Richard Lutz, CEO of DB, Volker Wissing, Federal Minister for Digital Affairs and Transport, Manja Schreiner, Senator for Mobility, Transport, Climate Protection and the Environment in Berlin, Michael Peterson, DB Member of the Management Board for Long Distance Passenger Transport, and Roland Busch, CEO of Siemens AG, took part in the official naming ceremony at the Berlin main station. The seven-car ICE 4 was christened with water from the Spree in Berlin.

Siemens Mobility has delivered 137 Class 412 EMUs in three different variants since 2016 - totaling over 1,500 cars with around 105,000 seats. The ceremony marked the completion of the largest procurement program in DB’s history. In addition to the 37 seven-car units, there are 50 twelve-car trains as well as 50 thirteen-car XXL ICE 4s in service. The latter offer seating for nearly 1,000 passengers and runs on routes that are particularly in demand, such as from Hamburg via North Rhine-Westphalia and via the Rhine/Main high-speed line to southern Germany. Like the other seven-car 412s, the ICE “Spree” will primarily operate between Berlin and North Rhine-Westphalia as well as between Frankfurt am Main, München, Salzburg and Klagenfurt. 

Richard Lutz, CEO of DB: “Siemens and DB have delivered this project right on time. Expansion of the DB fleet is a central lever for achieving the goal of our Starke Schiene (Strong Rail) strategy: doubling the number of passengers in long-distance trains. We invested 6 billion EUR in the 137 trains alone. And we will continue putting a new ICE train in service for our passengers every three weeks in 2024.” 

Volker Wissing, Federal Minister for Digital Affairs and Transport: "People in our country rightly expect reliable and punctual trains again as soon as possible. By 2030, around 12 billion EUR will therefore be invested in new long-distance trains, the ICE fleet will grow to 450 units and the average age of ICE and Intercity trains will fall from 18 to 12 years. In combination with the general refurbishment of the network, all the signs point to improvement." 

Roland Busch, CEO of Siemens AG: “The punctual delivery of the last ICE 4 marks a great joint success for Deutsche Bahn and Siemens. As the longest train in the ICE fleet, the ICE 4 has around 25% more seats. And since it is lighter and more aerodynamic, it uses 30% less energy than previous models. Over its lifetime, each train replaces 20,000 cars and saves up to 400,000 tons of CO2."