GERMANY: A preliminary plan for a programme of 40 short, medium and long-term infrastructure projects to improve the performance and capacity of the rail network has been produced by Deutsche Bahn as a basis for discussion with the government.
The proposals cover 4 200 route-km, with completion envisaged for 2030. DB would bundle interventions such as track renewals and resignalling more closely than before. This would mean a line would only be closed for one period, enabling more efficient working, a reduction in total closure time and no further construction work for several years. Long-term planning would also enable diversionary routes to be prepared in advance of major works.
‘We want to expand the heavily used sections of our rail network into a high performance network’, said Berthold Huber, DB’s management board member for infrastructure, on February 9.
‘The first corridors have already been determined: the general renovation of the Riedbahn between Frankfurt and Mannheim will begin in the summer of 2024, with the Hamburg – Berlin and Emmerich – Oberhausen corridors following a year later. How and where to continue after that will be decided by the federal government. I am glad that we can now go into further talks with a specific proposal.’
