New Cottbus Plant: Construction of the Second Hall Underway. “Railway Partnership Model” Proves Effective.
Since March 2024, construction has been underway for the second hall of Deutsche Bahn's (DB) ICE maintenance plant in Cottbus. Brandenburg's Prime Minister Dr. Dietmar Woidke and Dr. Daniela Gerd Tom Markotten, DB's Board Member for Digitalisation and Technology, marked the commencement of the project with a symbolic groundbreaking. Rhomberg Sersa Rail Group is also involved, along with partners, and is responsible for the transportation facilities, civil engineering, railway technical equipment, and medium voltage supply.
The over 500-metre-long, four-track hall will complete DB's most modern and largest maintenance facility. Thanks to innovative technologies like augmented reality glasses, material management apps, and infrastructure tailored to the ICE 4, trains in Cottbus can be maintained significantly faster than in other facilities, where they need to be split and laboriously shunted for servicing. This ensures that trains are quickly and reliably available again for passengers traveling in Germany, Austria, or Switzerland.
In January, DB opened the first two-track maintenance hall in Cottbus just 20 months after the initial groundbreaking. Earthworks for the second construction project also began in January, and the four-track maintenance hall plus paint shop is expected to be operational in 2026. Then, in DB's most modern facility, the full capacity for heavy maintenance of the entire ICE 4 fleet will be available just four years after construction began.
The ICE 4 is the backbone of DB's long-distance services, with 137 of these trains already in operation. By the end of the decade, around 450 ICE trains of various series are expected to be running on the tracks. More trains require more maintenance capacity. With modern technology and automation, the new plant in Cottbus ensures that trains can quickly be returned to service. This allows more people to travel in an environmentally friendly and comfortable manner, contributing to the transportation transformation in Germany.
Facts
Project New Cottbus Plant Hall 1
- Location: Cottbus
- Client: Deutsche Bahn AG (DB)
- Contract: Transportation facilities, civil engineering, railway technical equipment, medium voltage supply
- Completion: 2026
