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I was going to add that Locomotive hauled passenger consists are disappearing rapidly anyway. It is quite likely that the SBB have bought their last passenger locomotive, and will only buy EMUs from now on, and the Re460s are used as part of a Virtual EMU in most cases. I thought the Germans were going in the same direction, but I have since heard that they are having second thoughts. It seems that most of the Länder are now favoring EMUs for Regional services like the new Class 440 Coradia Continental, for Bayern.
by jfbeaulieu on Tue Jul 7th, 2009 at 09:57:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]
The main use of locomotives in local passenger service today is pulling double-deck cars. In this, Germany and Switzerland are opposite poles: all local service double-deck is EMU in Switzerland, and all local service double-deck is loco-pulled in Germany. France is mixed -- see the new Transilien Primas.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.
by DoDo on Wed Jul 8th, 2009 at 07:56:38 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Germany is really mixed also for local service, it depends on the Länder and also what line. The Class 425/426 EMUs are used on RB and RE services.
by jfbeaulieu on Wed Jul 8th, 2009 at 06:39:47 PM EST
[ Parent ]
But they are not double-deck - I only spoke of double-deck here. (The bulk of S-Bahn traffic is indeed done by single-deck class 420, 422, 423, 424, 425, 426, 470-474, 475-485 EMUs, and some others are in regional service only.) There was one double-deck EMU in Germany, the class 445 prototype, but DB did not purchase it. I could never find out the reason; it should not have been a technical failure, given that the SBB RABe 514 was based on it; so, it was probably price.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.
by DoDo on Sun Jul 12th, 2009 at 03:47:00 AM EST
[ Parent ]

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