Now, let's take the headline apart.
Is it the first all-electric trai… no!
Is it the first accumulator train? Also no, as you can see in the list above, the class 515 exists and the Stadler Flirt Akku has been used on a line since October 2023,
Is it the first Siemens Mireo Plus B being used? You guess what, nope. As an example, SWEG is using some of them to bridge non-electrified parts of the track since April 2024.
So finally, what is special about the Gigatrain? (gosh, I actually really dislike that name) In February 2024, the subsidary 'Smart Train Lease GmbH' of Siemens Mobility has been announced. There you can also lease two Siemens Mireo Plus Bs. Tesla is their very first client. That's it
Whoops, got longer as expected. In case I made small mistakes, feel free to point it out
The train also only runs between Erkner Station, and Tesla Sud, which is literally just the station right at the Tesla manufacturing facility in the area.
"It's also free to not just Tesla employees, but regular passengers as well."
That's great and all, but are everyday people taking trains to go see the outside of a Tesla factory, then leaving again?
Generally, I'm against violence towards journalists - but dishonest and manipulative headlines like this tend to make me reconsider my stance, if but for a moment.
What the... this is so infuriating to a railfan. It's like they are trying to attach a 2x viewer multiplier by putting Elon-related keyword in it when Tesla has so little to do with it.
It's not a Tesla train, nor a battery from Tesla, nor operated by Tesla, not even a new route (but granted an expanded timetable)
I wish media hyped trains like this in general and not limited to implicitly attributing it to Musk (who made hyperloop specifically to distract from High Speed Rail, mind you)... "GIGA TRAIN brings commuters to work", "Hyper train first electric regional service in California - you won't believe the capacity!"
Based on this dumpster fire of a headline, I think the take-away can only be that Siemens and other train manufacturers have to start calling their trains "OMEGA RAIL" and "CHUNGUS 3000" or shit like that so it's worth a news article.
NO WAY! Did they just copy the Siemens Mireo and made it a double decker
It looks even more obvious in the German version of the site where the first picture is literally this one:
Edit:
Now that I have taken a closer look I question if the "Tesla" train is even a double decker or actually the Mireo
Edit 2:
And I am unsure if Yahoo just used a random train as their cover or if this is the Tesla train in question. I am so confused O.o
Edit 3:
Soo it's not a double decker and it is "Tesla's train" sooo... If I was Tesla I'd get back to the drawing board because I doubt Siemens will be happy with what they did here
The logo on the front is from the NEB, Niederbarnimer Eisenbahn AG, which runs in German province's of Berlin and Brandenburg. No way in hell the Muskrat MAGAT is going to build trains.
I may be an idiot, but I'm 99% certain that this color scheme is only used in Baden-Württemberg - a state that's like 500km away from the Tesla factory.
How many bad forms of transportation do you think he has to saddle the world with to sate his ego about the hyperloop turning out to be a totally unworkable lie?
Hilarious they used 'giga' train. Rob and Elon just did that Diablo 4 stream the other day and Rob says 'giga' 6x per video. Clearly rubbed off on old Elon.
What exactly are you taking issue with here? The train runs on batteries, and it's the first one in the world deployed, though the manufacturer, I'm sure, is hoping to sell to more operators than Tesla Germany.