New depot for Mireo BEMUs in Offenburg

After only one-and-a-half years of construction, Siemens Mobility opened on 19 June 2023 a new depot in Offenburg together with Südwestdeutsche Landesverkehrs-GmbH (SWEG). The new, modern facility will be used to maintain the Siemens-built Mireo Plus B battery-powered trains that are expected to enter service in the Network 8 “Ortenau” as of mid-December 2023 - a first in Germany.

SWEG will lease the depot to Siemens Mobility for 30 years from June 2023. As part of the opening ceremony, the Mireo Plus B also took its first public test run between Offenburg and Gengenbach. In addition, Baden-Württemberg’s Transport Minister Winfried Hermann and SWEG CEOs Tobias Harms and Thilo Grabo signed the transport contract for Network 8 transferring operation of the latter from the state to SWEG for 15 years as of 10 December 2023. 

“With the new depot for Siemens, an underfloor lathe, and the existing SWEG workshop, SWEG has created a comprehensive service center for rail vehicles here in Offenburg in just five years that is unique in southern Germany in terms of possibilities and modernity,” explained SWEG CEO Tobias Harms. “There’s nothing to remind one of the historic rail depot that once stood here. With this new facility, Offenburg is truly a railway city again.” 

The new workshop is located near the Offenburg station in the city’s northeast. Covering an area of 1,350 m2, the depot includes two pit tracks, roof work stands, and a full-length gantry crane. Two outbuildings, 350 m2 and 200 m2 in area, provide space for storage, offices, and social facilities. It was also agreed that Siemens Mobility can use the onsite SWEG infrastructure, such as the outdoor car wash.

The depot warehouse can rely on a minimum of stock since Siemens Mobility uses its MoBase e-commerce platform for managing spare parts. With it, required parts can be delivered on demand within 24 hours. Condition-based, predictive maintenance of the trains is made possible by using the cloud-based Siemens Mobility application suite Railigent X. Thanks to its advanced algorithms and data analytics, possible faults are detected before they lead to failures.

In 2020, the Baden-Württemberg State Authority for Rail Vehicles (SFBW) ordered 27 two-car, 120-seat Mireo Plus B battery-powered trains from Siemens Mobility. Running on batteries, the Mireo BEMU has a range of around 80 km under real conditions. 

As of mid-December 2023, Network 8 “Ortenau” will include the following routes: Offenburg - Freudenstadt/Hornberg, Offenburg - Bad Griesbach, Offenburg - Achern, Achern - Ottenhöfen, and Biberach (Baden) - Oberharmersbach-Riersbach. The reactivated Hermann Hesse railway between Calw and Renningen is expected to join the network in 2025. Network services currently total around 2.5 million train kilometers annually.