CAF builds a new depot in Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck

On 9 July 2025, CAF started the new construction and modernisation of the historic depot in Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck with a symbolic ground-breaking ceremony. In future, the regional BEMUs for the Niederrhein-Münsterland network will be maintained there.

In February 2025, CAF successfully completed the complex planning approval process for the construction of the new depot by receiving planning permission from the Münster district government. This paved the way for the necessary preparatory work to set up the future construction site and for the start of construction work. With the official ground-breaking ceremony, the CEO of CAF Germany, Ronald R. F. Lünser, the Mayor of Gelsenkirchen, Karin Welge, the Chairman of the Rhein-Ruhr Transport Association, Oliver Wittke, and the CEO of the Spanish CAF Group responsible for the global maintenance business, Ibon García, set the course for the reactivation in front of around one hundred invited guests from politics, business, administration and transport associations.

However, the symbolic ground-breaking ceremony not only laid the foundations for the new building in the proverbial sense, as around 14 new points and 3,500 m of new track will actually be laid. This also includes an electrified group of tracks for vehicle handover, stabling and rapid charging of traction batteries. In addition, the site has two sidings to the DB infrastructure in the east and west.

On the 90,000 m² site, a three-track workshop and various technical buildings will be built, e.g. for the external cleaning of the trains or for processing the wheels and wheelsets. The buildings, which together cover around 6,500 m², will be supplemented by further technical facilities. Completion is planned for the end of 2026.

The new depot is intended for the long-term maintenance of the fleet for the Lower Rhine-Münsterland network, which will gradually begin operation from 2027 and replace the old DMUs. To this end, CAF is supplying the Verkehrsverbund Rhein Ruhr (VRR) and the Nahverkehrsverbund Westfalen-Lippe (NWL) with a total of 76 BEMUs.