Deutsche Bahn has submitted an application for fundamental approval of its ICE trains for the Channel Tunnel to the responsible safety authority, the Intergovernmental Commission (IGC).
“We have provided all the evidence necessary for the fundamental approval of our ICE trains in the Channel Tunnel. This means that we are now much closer to meeting all the requirements for a direct ICE service between London and cities such as Cologne, Frankfurt and Amsterdam,” says Ulrich Homburg, the DB Management Board member responsible for Passenger Transport.
An independent Swiss engineering office prepared a comprehensive safety study for the submission on behalf of DB. This provided evidence of the safety compliant features of the 200-metre long ICE trainsets in both single and double traction mode. In addition, extensive evacuation simulations were performed by a second group of experts, and DB also successfully completed an evacuation test inside the Channel Tunnel with two coupled ICE trains in October 2010.
DB hopes to start passenger services in 2013.
