DB announces €825m high-speed line upgrades

German Rail (DB) announced on October 1 that it will spend €825m to renew track on the Hanover – Würzburg and Mannheim – Stuttgart high-speed lines.

Work between Hanover and Würzburg, where DB will renew 532km of track and 224 turnouts, and lay 800,000 new sleepers and 500,000 tonnes of ballast at a cost of around €640m, will take place successively over four stages:

Hanover – Göttingen (June 11 to December 14 2019),

Göttingen – Kassel (April 23 to July 15 2021),

Fulda – Würzburg (2022) and

Kassel – Fulda (2023).

The renewal of the Mannheim – Stuttgart line will be completed in 205 days with a closure between April 10 2019 and October 31 2019.

DB says the work will cause disruption on the routes, adding 30 to 45 minutes to journey times for Hamburg – Frankfurt, Berlin – Frankfurt and Hamburg – Munich trains. Capacity restrictions will also be in place between Hamburg, Berlin and Frankfurt.

On the Mannheim – Stuttgart route, the focus is on renewing approximately 190km of tracks and 54 switches. Around 200,000 tonnes of new ballast and 315,000 new concrete sleepers will be laid at a cost of €185m.

“In a show of strength, after more than 30 years DB is preparing two parade courses for the next decades,” says DB Netz CEO, Mr Frank Sennhenn. “We invest and modernise for fast and reliable mobility.”

Source: railjournal.com