Top-flight performance in high-speed rail traffic provides an eco-friendly, future-ready alternative to aircraft and cars,and is an important key factor in the economic success and quality of life of entire regions. Today,the Velaro has an experience lead of ten years. The revolutionary move (away from concentrating the traction equipment in power cars operating in push-pull mode, towards a distributed traction configuration)
was an advance made by Siemens in the 1990s. As a result, the first train – the ICE 3® – went into service in time for Expo 2000. From there, Siemens’ innovations have continued ever since.
The Velaro platform is based on our experience with creating rail solutions in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, China,and Russia. The fourth generation of the Velaro, the outgrowth of our latest development work,now returns to its home country – and it’s a real European. The interoperable high-speed Velaro Deutschland, built for the Deutsche Bahn AG (BR 407), will link Europe under four different voltage systems.
