Deutsche Bahn is often criticized for unpunctual trains and outdated technology. In Swabia, the digital future is now being tested in practice.
Deutsche Bahn (DB) has put the first digital signal box on a high-speed line into operation in Swabia. The signal box in Donauwörth, Bavaria, replaces two relay signal boxes in Meitingen and Mertingen that are more than 60 years old. On the ICE route Munich-Augsburg-Nuremberg, trains can travel at speeds of up to 200 kilometers per hour in this area. According to the railway, a total of 75 million euros was invested in this.
According to DB, this is a so-called pre-series project. The railway wants to test components and prepare for later widespread use of the technology. The control and safety technology of the rail infrastructure is then to be modernized and digitized by 2035. The “digital rail” will enable trains to run fully automatically and at shorter intervals, the company explains.
“In the digital signal box in Donauwörth, we are controlling signals online for the first time, making us a leader in Europe,” said DB Infrastructure Director Berthold Huber. The technology not only brings more capacity to the network, it is also easier to maintain and therefore more reliable. This will mean that there will be additional and more punctual trains in passenger and freight transport in the future.
The DB network subsidiary operates a total of around 2,600 signal boxes with a wide variety of technology, some of which is more than 100 years old. The railway is running further model projects for digital signal boxes on the Koblenz-Trier route, in Warnemünde on the Baltic Sea and in the Harz-Weser network between Braunschweig and Göttingen.
Source: Stern
