Railfreight.com — 2024-04-05
Land transportation
The four billion euro German infrastructure program “Small and Medium Measures” for the rail network is making progress, with 138 of the planned 355 projects set to be implemented by the end of 2025, says Deutsche Bahn (DB). This constitutes 40 per cent of the planned measures, with an investment of around one billion euros.
Among the projects are infrastructure elements such as additional crossovers, extra signals, and track change facilities or new platforms. The program aims to achieve rapid positive effects on capacity and punctuality for passengers and freight customers. The projects are primarily financed by the German federal government’s climate protection package and Deutsche Bahn, with completion targeted by 2030.
Philipp Nagl, CEO of DB InfraGO AG, stated, “The program is an important part of our tasks at DB InfraGO. Here, we focus on the existing network. In line with the corporate strategy Strong Rail, we have been focusing on ‘small and medium measures’ since 2022 to quickly eliminate bottlenecks and make the network more resilient at a very good price-performance ratio. Thanks to accelerated implementation – for example, by bundling measures and streamlining project planning – we are increasingly successful in achieving a significant impact quickly with small and particularly effective projects.”
Freight focus
Projects aimed at improving the quality of production processes in rail freight transport include measures in Combined Transport terminals, train formation facilities, and new track connections. The expansion of the network for long freight trains (740-metre network) will create more overtaking opportunities for these long trains. In regional transport, measures co-ordinated with the federal states will be implemented.
Some examples include the completed construction of the Simssee diversion point and the Landl branch point on the Kufstein-Rosenheim-Salzburg line in 2023, which will increase capacity and scheduling options. Approximately 20 million euros will be invested by the end of this year in the Wandersleben section (Thuringia) to optimise the area on the Erfurt-Bebra line for 740-metre-long freight trains.