Italo orders 26 Siemens high-speed trains for German market entry
Italo has signed a €3 billion contract with Siemens Mobility for 26 high-speed trains and 30 years of maintenance. The Italian operator plans to launch services on two German corridors in 2028 as regulators open capacity to greater competition.
Fleet contract supports 2028 launch
Italian rail operator Italo has signed a €3 billion contract with Siemens Mobility for 26 high-speed trains, taking a major step toward entering Germany’s long-distance passenger market. According to Tagesschau, the agreement also includes an option for 14 additional trains and a maintenance contract covering 30 years.
The order follows a decision by Germany’s Federal Network Agency that cleared a regulatory path for Italo to compete on the country’s heavily used rail network. The operator plans to begin German services in 2028, challenging a market in which state-owned Deutsche Bahn currently controls around 95% of long-distance traffic. The only other larger competitor identified by Tagesschau is Munich-based travel company Flix.
Trains to be built and maintained in Germany
Italo will use Siemens Velaro Multi System trains, a platform closely related in design and appearance to Deutsche Bahn’s ICE 3 and ICE 3 Neo fleets. The vehicles will be manufactured at Siemens’ plant in Krefeld, while maintenance will take place at its Dortmund facility under the long-term service agreement.
The procurement and maintenance package forms the largest component of Italo’s planned investment in Germany. The company puts the total cost of its market entry at approximately €3.6 billion. In addition to the trains and their upkeep, the budget covers recruitment and training for around 2,500 employees, as well as spending on stations and IT infrastructure.
Italo chief executive Gianbattista La Rocca said the company intends to offer German passengers greater choice, more frequent connections, fair prices and high-quality service. The scale of the train order indicates that Italo is preparing for a sustained operating presence rather than a limited trial on selected routes.
Two corridors and 50 daily services
From 2028, Italo plans to operate on the Munich–Cologne–Dortmund and Munich–Berlin–Hamburg corridors. The proposed network would connect 18 cities across 1,300 kilometres and provide a total of 50 daily services, according to the company.
The Federal Network Agency’s intervention addresses access to congested infrastructure. It ordered Deutsche Bahn infrastructure subsidiary DB InfraGO to stop allocating more than 60% to 75% of capacity on heavily used and already saturated route sections to any single operator. That change creates operating room for Italo but does not remove the physical constraints affecting Germany’s network.
Capacity concerns remain
The announcement has prompted warnings from trade unions, passenger associations and Deutsche Bahn. They argue that adding another operator to an already overloaded system could reduce the availability of long-distance and regional services outside the principal corridors. Italo’s entry therefore combines a large industrial order for Siemens with a test of whether competition can expand on infrastructure where capacity is already scarce.
For Siemens Mobility, the contract secures production work in Krefeld and three decades of maintenance activity in Dortmund. For Italo, delivery, certification, staff training and infrastructure access must now come together before the 2028 launch. The option for another 14 trains provides room to expand if the initial German operation gains sufficient demand and network capacity.