GERMANY: The benefits of reopening the Almetal railway from Paderborn to Büren and Brilon Stadt would exceed the costs, a feasibility study commissioned by Westfalen-Lippe transport authority NWL has found.
The cost of reopening the 52 km route is put at €306m to €314m. Daily ridership is predicted at more than 3 000 passengers south of Paderborn and 1 200 to 1 600 between Brilon and Büren every day, shifting 119 000 to 128 000 car-km/day to rail.
The benefit:cost ratio is put at 1·6:1.
However, NWL cautioned that while reactivating the line could in principle make economic sense, there is no currently no funding for further planning, let alone implementation.
