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Deutsche Bahn plans to invest record $51 bln

03 July 2010 17:58 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Germany’s state-owned rail operator Deutsche Bahn plans to make the biggest investment in its history between now and 2014, a company official told the Berliner Zeitung on Saturday, APA reports quoting news.yahoo.com website.
The rail company will invest some 41 billion euros (51.5 billion dollars) in its operations, 75 percent of which will be spent on the rail network and modernising the stations, with the remainder for acquiring new trains, the company’s technical director Volker Kefer said.
Deutsche Bahn plans to purchase up to 300 new high-speed "ICx" trains to succeed the current ICE model, he said.
"For regional transport, we envision buying up to 400 electric trains" as well as 600 buses for local travel, Kefer added.
With these investments, "travel times will be shortened, trains will be more reliable and punctual, and they will be more comfortable," he said.
A major European rail service, covering 150 countries, Deutsche Bahn is undergoing extensive international expansion. In April it acquired Arriva, one of Britain’s top transport firms.
Deutsche Bahn employs about 240,000 people, three-quarters of whom are based in Germany. Revenues last year were 29.3 billion euros.
In Germany alone, the rail company has 34,000 kilometres (21,126 miles) of track, and each day transports more than seven million passengers by train and bus.