Germany’s railway operator, Deutsche Bahn, on Monday began test operations for battery-powered passenger trains.
Manufactured by French company Alstom, test runs for the Battery Electric Multiple Unit kicked off on regional services in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg. They are scheduled to last until the beginning of May, and another test run in Bavaria is planned for early February, Deutsche Bahn said.
“Test operations got off to a successful start this morning with the first train,” a spokesperson for Deutsche Bahn told Xinhua. The train, which has 150 seats, should cover a total distance of around 50,000 km by May.
The battery-electric train was developed by Alstom and the Technical University of Berlin, with the support of the national organization for hydrogen and fuel cell technology.
