One of Germany’s busiest railways is set to close for five months as the country works towards fixing its notorious disruption-prone network.
Germany has closed its 70-kilometre railway operating between Frankfurt to Mannheim. The railway is to remain closed until 14 December as state-owned railway operator, Deutsche Bahn alters infrastructure and overhauls tracks and stations.
More than 300 trains per day rely on this route. Part of the route – the main north-south route connecting to Switzerland – often has problems with delays.
Buses will replace all regional trains throughout the closure, while long-distance trips will be available through slower routes.
The €1.3 billion plan is part of a broader project aimed at modernising 40 railway routes by 2030. Deutsche Bahn wants to improve reliability in a network that has come in for criticism recently while Germany was hosting the European Football Championships.
Football fans were increasingly frustrated at the unreliability of the routes and Deutsche Bahn later explained that the tournament had led to “mixed” railway results and further explained that “it got the maximum out of the railway system, but the possibilities were limited by outdated and overloaded infrastructure”.
Transport Minister Volker said the reason the overhaul was not started before the football was because it would have caused further disruption.
“I took over dilapidated railway infrastructure in which not enough was invested by my predecessors for decades,” Volker Wissing, who became transport minister at the end of 2021, told Deutschlandfunk radio on Monday. “We are going to invest enormous sums, historic sums, in the railway.”
