Busy railway lines have generally been electrified for a long time. But overall – as transport associations complain – the expansion is stalling.
According to figures from two transport associations, the federal government is making little progress in the construction of overhead lines for railway lines. Around 600 kilometers of electrical lines would actually have to be built every year so that around three quarters of the federal rail network would be electrified by 2030 as planned, as the Pro-Rail Alliance and the Association of German Transport Companies (VDV) announced. In the past 13 years, an average of only around 80 kilometers per year has been added. The federal government would have to expand almost eight times faster to achieve the 75 percent target.
“As regrettable as we find it, this is completely unrealistic given the current level of implementation,” criticized Allianz Managing Director Dirk Flege. The VDV managing director for rail transport, Martin Henke, said: “The industry would like to see significantly faster progress. We believe an electrification target of 80 percent by 2035 is not only desirable, but also realistic.”
According to the data, last year almost two-thirds of the federal rail network (62 percent) was equipped with overhead lines. That was about the same level as the previous year. Because particularly busy routes have long been electrified, the proportion of rail transport that is provided electrically is significantly higher at 90 percent.
Source: Stern
