Condition of the rail network
State report: no further deteriorated rail network
It is poorly ordered for the infrastructure of the railway. But at least it didn’t get worse last year. It should still take a while until the passengers feel improvements.
According to Deutsche Bahn, the condition of the rail network in Germany has not deteriorated for the first time in years. In the so -called network status report, the federal group awarded a school grade of 3.0 for the entire rail network for 2024, after 3.03 in the previous year.
“We stopped the deterioration of our infrastructure,” said the head of the infrastructure company DB Infrago, Philipp Nagl. The main reason for this is the high investments in the rail network. Almost 20 billion euros were installed last year. “Now it is important to stabilize these funds in the long term – then a real trend reversal can succeed,” emphasized Nagl. “Despite the current success, many of our facilities and train stations are not unchanged in good condition.”
While the tracks, the course, overhead lines and train stations have been renewed to a large extent, there is still a need to catch up with the lead and safety technology. This includes the signal boxes, of which significantly more than half are in at least “bad” condition. The proportion has even increased again compared to the previous year. Many of the facilities are more than 100 years old and need to be operated by hand.
Passengers feel the still poor condition of the infrastructure every day. In March alone, due to the numerous construction sites on the network, a good third of all long -distance trains were on the road with delays – train failures were not included. By 2027, the punctuality rate should increase to 75 to 80 percent in the course of a large -scale renovation program.
dpa
Source: Stern
