In mid-December 2016, the alternative long-distance rail provider Locomore took off. Since then, it has been operating the Stuttgart - Berlin route and back once a day. The long-distance train is powered by green electricity certified by NATURSTROM AG. This is the first time that real green electricity has been used in rail transport.
An annual demand of around 8.5 million kilowatt hours is forecast - as much as for around 2,400 single-family homes. For every kilowatt hour of green electricity that NATURSTROM supplies to the rail network for Locomore, the green energy supplier invests a fixed amount in energy transition projects, such as new solar or wind power plants.
In the first four weeks, over 25,000 passengers used the orange trains. Some journeys were even over 100 percent full. But not everything went smoothly: During regular operation, the first defects appeared on doors, toilets and WLAN components, so that the maintenance effort for the wagons increased. At the same time, the delivery of further modernized cars was delayed.
In order to ensure consistently high quality, Locomore decided to reduce its service from 14 journeys a week (Stuttgart - Berlin and back) to ten for just under two and a half months.
In March, the wagon fleet was then increased by three newly refurbished wagons. This means that sufficient capacity is again available to operate the route daily as planned from the beginning of April.
Locomore could break even for the first time in the middle of this year. There are already plans to expand the route network to Cologne, Rügen and Munich. Additional cities could be served as early as 2018 - but more cars are urgently needed for this.
