The four-car articulated trains must be designed so that they can be easily split into two two-car sets at the depot. Each train will be 75.93m long over the couplers, 3.55m wide with a floor height of 1050mm. There should be 112 seats per train with room for 497 passengers standing at a density of 0.25m2 per person.

All axles must be driven and the trains should have a maximum speed of 80km/h. The trains must be able to cope with a maximum gradient of 5%. This is 1% more than the steepest gradient on the VAG network, which has a minimum curve radius of 100m and is electrified at 750V dc third rail.

A maximum axleload of 12.6 tonnes is stipulated for the leading and centre bogies and 12.8 tonnes for the other bogies. The trains will need to be compatible with VAG's existing fleet.

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