TRAMTRAINS BADEN-WUERTTEMBERG

Purchase of tram-trains in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

The project concerns the purchase of an estimated 135 new tram-train vehicles for the existing regional rail services around the city of Karlsruhe, and for the new regional rail services in the Neckar-Alb region, which include the cities of Tübingen and Reutlingen. The project will contribute to improving the quality of public transport service in terms of comfort and reliability and will uphold and increase the attractiveness of public transport in the two metropolitan areas, thus contributing to a reduction of reliance on private cars and their negative impact on the environment and congestion. The project will thereby promote sustainable transport solutions in line with EU objectives.

The Project will replace life expired rolling stock on the Albtal-Verkehrsgesellschaft (AVG) network and will increase capacity on the Regional-Stadtbahn Neckar-Alb network (both networks located in Baden-Württemberg, Germany). The Project is expected to contribute to modal shift from road to rail (or at least maintain rail modal share). This will contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions, traffic congestion, road accidents, air pollution and noise levels, operating and maintenance costs. The Project is 100% eligible under Climate Action.

The Bank's loans have been a cornerstone of the borrower's multi-billion investment programme into regional rolling stock ever since its establishment, providing a substantial contribution to the programme's financeability and affordability and attracting third-party financing. The loan will offer key benefits such as a very long loan maturity and flexibility with respect to availability period, interest rate arrangements and grace periods as well as to drawdowns, which will enable the required alignment with the implementation and financial modalities of the Project.

The project consists of the acquisition of new rolling stock, which is out of the scope of the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive (2014/52/EU amending 2011/92/EU), the Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) and Birds Directive (2009/147/EC). The need of EIA and/or assessment according to the Habitats Directive for associated facilities (e.g. maintenance workshops, depots or other associated infrastructure) and arrangements for the scrapping of dismissed rolling stock will be assessed during appraisal. The project will promote a modal shift from road to rail and, therefore, generate environmental and safety benefits.

The Bank will require the Promoter to ensure that contracts for the implementation of the project have been and shall be tendered in accordance with the relevant applicable EU procurement legislation, Directive 2014/24/EU, 2014/25/EU, as well as Directive 89/665/EEC and 92/13/EEC, as interpreted by the Court of Justice of the EU, with publication of tender notices in the Official Journal of the EU (OJEU), as and where required.