2024-07-15 09:10:02
BERLIN (AP) — One of Germany’s busiest rail lines, the 70-kilometer (45-mile) stretch between Frankfurt and Mannheim, will be closed for five months starting Monday for an overhaul due to frequent operational disruptions. The railway network is known for its problems.
National rail operator Deutsche Bahn has closed the line until December 14 and plans a comprehensive overhaul of tracks, stations and other infrastructure. This section has more than 300 trains running every day and is part of the main north-south route connecting Hamburg and Cologne with Stuttgart and Basel in Switzerland. Often, accumulated delays on this section have a domino effect affecting other parts of the rail network.
During the closure, all regional trains on the route will be replaced by buses, while long-distance services will be rerouted to slower routes.
The €1.3 billion ($1.4 billion) project is supposed to be the start of a wider plan to modernize 40 tracks by 2030 and improve the serviceability of a typically underwhelming network. reliability. Last month, he frustrated fans who flocked to Germany to watch the European football championships, which ended on Sunday.
Deutsche Bahn said on Friday that its punctuality during the games was “varied” and that it “utilized the rail network to its full potential, but possibilities are limited due to outdated and overloaded infrastructure”.
Transport Minister Volker Wissing said starting renovations before football matches would lead to further complications.
“I inherit a dilapidated rail infrastructure that for decades my predecessors did not invest enough in,” Wiesing, who takes office at the end of 2021, said in a statement to Deutschlandfunk radio on Monday. “We will be on the rails Investing huge amounts of money, historic huge amounts of money.”
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