The new trains, probably costing between 3.5 million euros and 5 million euros each, mark the beginning of a program to replace aging models in the regional fleet, Christine Geissler- Schild, a Deutsche Bahn spokeswoman, said. Deutsche Bahn is seeking bids from train suppliers until April and will award the contract in the months after that, she said.

"We want to establish an entirely new generation of trains that provides more comfort for our passengers,'' Geissler-Schild said in a telephone interview in Berlin.

Chief Executive Hartmut Mehdorn, 63, is spending money to improve the railway's infrastructure and expand the Berlin-based company outside of running traditional passenger and freight trains as he prepares for a possible share sale. Deutsche Bahn said Nov. 16 it was buying the Brink's Co.'s U.S. freight delivery division BAX Global Inc. for $1.1 billion.

Deutsche Bahn expects delivery of the first trains in 2008, Geissler-Schild said. The probable bidders for the contract are Siemens AG, Alstom SA and Bombardier Inc., she said.

The railway is also planning to purchase 10,000 new freight cars through 2010, Geissler-Schild said.

Profit Goal Met

Deutsche Bahn met a goal of boosting 2005 profit at least 58 percent after sales increased, Mehdorn said earlier today at an event highlighting Deutsche Bahn's preparation for the soccer World Cup, which Germany is hosting this year.

Earnings after interest expenses were "well over 400 million euros for 2005,'' Mehdorn said, without specifying a figure. Profit in 2004 was 253 million euros. Full-year sales rose to about 27 billion euros, including revenue from newly acquired BAX, a 13 percent increase. The BAX takeover will probably be completed in the coming days, Mehdorn said.

Revenue from passenger trains last year amounted to 11 billion euros, with 14 billion euros coming from freight and logistics and 1 billion euros from other infrastructure and customer service businesses, Mehdorn said. Sales in 2004 totaled 24 billion euros.

The share of sales from business outside Germany increased to 34 percent last year from 23 percent in 2004, Mehdorn said. The railway provided 1.8 billion passenger rides in 2005, a 4 percent increase from 2004.

World Cup Travel

Deutsche Bahn said it expects to carry an additional 5 million people as a result of the World Cup events. To handle the increased traffic, the railway is adding 250 extra trains, setting up charter trains to carry large groups and adding cars to some of regular long-distance services, said Karl-Friedrich Rausch, Deutsche Bahn's head of the passenger business.

"We expect a small profit'' from the additional traffic, Mehdorn said.

Mehdorn said he thinks the threat of a strike by Deutsche Bahn workers during the World Cup "is not meant seriously.'' Norbert Hansen, the head of a Deutsche Bahn trade union, told Sueddeutsche Zeitung Jan. 19 that workers are considering a strike during the World Cup to protest against the possible split-up of the rail network from train operations in the event of a share sale.

Separately, Deutsche Bahn said Thomas Held, 49, is stepping down at the end of this month as head of the Schenker logistics division. Held has been on the business's management board since 1997 and has run Schenker since January 2003, Deutsche Bahn said in an e-mailed statement.

The DB Netz AG track-network unit meanwhile named Volker Kefer, 50, as the business's new CEO effective June 1 "at the latest,'' succeeding Roland Heinisch, 63, who leaves the post at the end of March, Deutsche Bahn said in another e-mail.

To contact the reporter on this story: Chad Thomas in Berlin at cthomas16@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: January 26, 2006