Siemens has started laying foundations of its service and maintenance depot for Rhine-Ruhr-Express (RRX) trains, being built on the site of a former marshalling yard on the Dortmund-Lünen mainline in Germany.

The depot will be connected at its north and south end with the main line to the Dortmund railway station along the Lünen/Münster route. The 163m-long main building will be 63m wide and 12.4m high. Test operations are scheduled to start next year.

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Siemens Mobility Division CEO Jochen Eickholt said: "We use algorithms to analyse data delivered from the trains so we can fix malfunctions before they actually occur.

“This way, we can guarantee our customer VRR and all passengers nearly 99% availability of our trains. We're excited to be building this new depot in Dortmund."

The complex will house a six-track maintenance building, a warehouse, administration and social building, an outdoor cleaning facility for the trains, an underfloor lathe for overhauling wheelsets, as well as a diagnostics system for wheelsets.

All 82 RRX trains will be serviced and maintained at the 70,000m² depot for 32 years.

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"We use algorithms to analyse data delivered from the trains so we can fix malfunctions before they actually occur."

The property will be owned by Verkehrsverbunds Rhein-Ruhr (VRR) up to 2050 through a leasehold agreement with Siemens.

Trains are monitored in real-time and gathered data is evaluated in a central diagnostics system at the Siemens Mobility Data Services Center (MDS) in Munich-Allach.

Based on this analysis, the MDS specialists calculate failure predictions and recommend acute or scheduled maintenance to the service team in the new depot.

The facility has been designed to use around 15% less power than the recommended standard set by the new European Energy Saving Ordinance (EnEV).

Image: The service and maintenance depot being built for the Rhine-Ruhr-Express trains. Photo: courtesy of © Siemens AG.

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