Canadian-based rolling stock company Bombardier offered new details in an interview published Saturday about a bullet train it plans to jointly build with AnsaldoBreda of Italy. ( dpa )
The very-high-speed train would "achieve speeds of 250 to 350 kilometres per hour and be very energy-saving and quiet," the deputy head of Bombardier Transportation, Wolfgang Toelsner, told the newspaper Berliner Zeitung.
"It will be on the tracks by 2010," he said.
The Canadian company jointly announced in Rome at the start of this month that it would design, build and market the train with AnsaldoBreda, a unit of the Finmeccanica group, but gave few details at that time.
Two other trains with similar capacities dominate the European market, the French TGV and the roomier German ICE.
The 500-seat Bombardier train would "cater to the handicapped as well as to business people who need a form of mobile office," he said.
Bombardier has played a major part in developing and building the other European fast trains, but has never owned a high-speed train design exclusively. "We need a flagship with the Bombardier name on it," explained Toelsner.