Just wow… So if you look closely at the picture, you can barely see the number ‘563’ on the train. If you have a look at list of locomotives and railbuses iof DB on Wikipedia, you can see that this train is a Siemens Mireo.
Now, let’s take the headline apart. Is it the first all-electric trai… no! Is it the first accumulator train? Also no, as you can see in the list above, the class 515 exists and the Stadler Flirt Akku has been used on a line since October 2023, Is it the first Siemens Mireo Plus B being used? You guess what, nope. As an example, SWEG is using some of them to bridge non-electrified parts of the track since April 2024.
So finally, what is special about the Gigatrain? (gosh, I actually really dislike that name) In February 2024, the subsidary ‘Smart Train Lease GmbH’ of Siemens Mobility has been announced. There you can also lease two Siemens Mireo Plus Bs. Tesla is their very first client. That’s it
Whoops, got longer as expected. In case I made small mistakes, feel free to point it out
Also if you read the article, it becomes clear that they just copy and pasted the entire thing from a tesla fanboy Blog. It’s this one: https://www.teslarati.com/teslas-all-electric-giga-train-in-germany-takes-first-trip/
I mean, I haven’t seen a “Giga Train” before. Maybe it is the world’s first.
Now I’m imagining the deal between Tesla and Siemens:
Siemens guy: alright Mr Musk, just sign these papers and the mireo will be leased to your company
Elon (in 8 year old voice): woo! I made a Giga train! Choo Choo!
Siemens guy: umm, okay… As I said, the train is a Siemens Mireo. Hopefully this lease agreement will benefit both of our companies
Elon: nuh uh! It’s a Giga train and I invented it! Nobody ever had anything like this for getting around before!
