Siemens Velaro

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The Siemens Velaro is a platform of high speed EMUs developed based on the Deutsche Bahn ICE3. Although these trains look like the ICE3 from the outside, they do not have much in common. The Velaro is a sole Siemens product where the ICE3 project has other engineering firms involved including Bombardier Transportation. The majority of Velaro trains are used outside of Germany, with China being the largest buyer of these trains.

Deutsche Bahn ICE3

There are currently 5 variants of the Velaro with top revenue speeds ranging from 250 km/h to 380 km/h (155 mph to 236 mph). In chronological order, these are the 350 km/h Velaro E for Spain (or España in Spanish), designated by RENFE as the AVE S-103, 350km/h and 380 km/h Velaro C for China, designated by the MoR as the CRH3C/CRH380B, 250 km/h Velaro RUS for Russian Railways as the EVS/Sapsan, 320 km/h Velaro D for Deutsche Bahn as Class 407, and 320 km/h e320 for Eurostar. To date the European countries ordered a total of 59 sets of the Velaro and the Chinese ordered 260 sets.

Variants of the Siemens Velaro

Below are two short films from YouTube of the Velaro. This first one is of the CRH3C passing through a station at 350 km/h on the Wu-Guang HSR.


This second film is posted by Siemens promoting the Velaro in the USA.

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