Rail associations from all over Europe are claiming that the German infrastructure manager DB InfraGO is “failing to provide sufficient quality (and) reliability”. The parties were also quite critical of the Generalsanierung programme – the country’s railway renovation plan – which is causing significant disruptions.
“Rail freight operations on the German network become increasingly complex and costly with a lot of uncertainty for customers”, a document signed by 10 industry associations mentioned. The 10 signatories are Slovakian AROSRAIL, Czech ZESNAD, Polish ZNPK, Dutch RailGood, Austrian NEEÖ, Italian Fermerci and FerCargo and the European entities ERFA, UIRR and Forum Train Europe.
Generalsanierung is just the tip of the iceberg
According to them, the Generalsanierung programme is “just the tip of the iceberg”. One of the points they raised is that prolonged closures entailed in the plan cannot be standard practices. This is especially true when finding alternative routes becomes highly complicated. For example, during the closure of Rhine Valley railway in August 2024, a consortium of industry players created an alternative route through the Offenburg-Wörth line.
However, this route runs through France, which means it was necessary to always deploy two drivers, one speaking French and one speaking German. Moreover, it was necessary to utilise diesel locomotives, as many sections of the alternative route are not electrified. This resulted in a slower, more expensive and less climate-friendly transport option, which is not what the rail freight industry should be aiming for.
An unsolvable problem?
The German rail infrastructure is in dire need of being massively renovated. The Generalsanierung programme was conceived to try and improve the situation in the quickest manner. However, this translates into many main lines being closed at different times up until 2030 at the very least. Germany is not the only country in Europe facing similar problems. In Italy, for example, the industry has been dealing with capacity restrictions connected to infrastructure upgrades for the past couple of years. In this case, however, things should start to improve by 2027.