Summary:
Tesla has opened its railway line east of Berlin to passenger trains, providing transportation to workers at its new Gigafactory. The short rail line, which was bought from an independent German rail infrastructure holding company, gives Tesla direct connections to the main line linking Berlin with Poland. The railway line has been used for construction and will be used to dispatch or receive up to six freight trains daily. The Tesla factory is expected to employ around 10,000 people working 24/7 shifts, and the company has sponsored passenger trains to transport employees to and from the factory. The passenger trains are being operated by a local rail contractor and run 54 times a day on weekdays. There are plans to relocate a nearby Deutsche Bahn station near the factory in the future.
Comments:
Tesla has bought a German railway line to serve its new Gigafactory outside Berlin, which some have deemed irrelevant to the German passenger landscape. The railway line is primarily a short branch to service the factory and does not have multiple stations like a traditional railway line. Commuters have stated that the train service won’t change much for them, as they were already using a shuttle bus. However, the fast commuter trains mentioned in the article run irregularly throughout the day. Some have found it ironic that Tesla is building a railway line to facilitate car production, considering that Elon Musk has expressed open hostility towards public transportation.
So they do know how sensible electrified transport should work…
I was half expecting the story to end with ‘he plans to shut it down within the month’.
Nah, he’ll just crank the prices, fill it with ads, and make sure it’s never on time. Then he’ll complain when people don’t want to ride it anymore.
The use of the word “plans” is optimistic here … he’ll just do it in a fit of … intuition at some random point in the future.
These trains will be free for all passengers. And probably paid by the company
The punchline is that the train is not electrified, instead it runs with diesel.
YES! PLEASE! Make it happen!
That…that’s what it is. It’s literally a diesel powered train. I wasn’t joking, reality is the joke.
NO! It can’t be! It was meant to be a joke! Say that you are kidding!
I just can’t decide if I should laugh or cry.
I mean, you can even see it in the photo of the Gigafactory Station. Germany doesn’t have electrified tracks, only overhead wire (or side rail for underground or inner city trains), neither are visible in the picture.
It’s nice that now there’s a train to the factory, but it’s just a tiny diesel powered train that’s usually used to connect small towns and villages- east germans call that a “Ferkeltaxi” (piggy taxi).
I burst out in laughter telling my colleague about this earlier in the office. When I showed him the article he pointed at the picture and said I should have seen that it is a Diesel train.
Well. Just one more shitty solution my Tesla then…