Tesla’s Berlin Gigafactory in Germany will have its own train shuttle service starting next month, which will carry both employees and citizens for free between the neighboring city of Erkner and the factory premises.
The train will commute around 60 times a day from Monday to Friday, according to a statement from Tesla quoted by the German publication rbb24, bringing over 1,500 people directly to the facility at each change of shift.
Tesla’s German train will replace the current bus shuttle that ferries workers between the Grundheinde Gigafactory and the Erkner train station, helping reduce the levels of road traffic congestion in the area.
Set to make its first public trip on September 4, the train will run on tracks that were acquired by Tesla from German Regional Railway Group DRE in January of last year and will stop at a newly built platform that can be seen in the video embedded above, published on the YouTube channel the_wolfpack_berlin a couple of days ago.
As per rbb24, the Brandenburg State Office for Construction and Transport approved the shuttle in February, and commissioning was planned for the second quarter of this year, between April and June. In other words, the train will begin its scheduled service some five months later than originally intended, at the end of the third quarter.
Tesla started assembling the Model Y at its sole European factory in March 2022 and reached a production milestone of 5,000 units per week a year later. However, a recent Business Insider report suggests that was a one-time achievement, with subsequent production numbers falling to less than 4,000 units per week.
Furthermore, another report from June said that the Austin-based car manufacturer would cut Saturday shifts and hire fewer temporary workers. According to rbb24, which quotes Tesla, around 11,000 people were last employed at the German Gigafactory.
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