BERLIN: Germany's national railway operator is ordering 30 new high-speed trains from industrial conglomerate Siemens for some 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion).
State-owned Deutsche Bahn said Wednesday that the new ICE trains will go into service from 2022, initially between the populous western North Rhine-Westphalia region and Munich.
The company said the order means that its long-distance fleet will expand by 20% in the coming years. It also has an option to buy 60 more high-speed trains.
``Even though demand declined strongly because of the coronavirus pandemic, in the longer term everything speaks for climate-friendly railways,'' Deutsche Bahn CEO Richard Lutz said in a statement. ``So we are staying on a course of growth and investment.''
Deutsche Bahn cut long-distance ticket prices at the beginning of this year when the German government reduced value-added tax on train tickets as part of a package of measures aimed at combating climate change. The government cut all VAT rates on July 1 for six months as part of a stimulus package to boost the economy after the coronavirus shutdown, which resulted in another reduction in ticket prices.
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