{"id":216301,"date":"2025-05-13T22:43:35","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T12:43:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/?p=62385"},"modified":"2025-05-13T22:43:35","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T12:43:35","slug":"european-associations-scold-db-infrago-criticise-generalsanierung","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=216301","title":{"rendered":"European associations scold DB InfraGO, criticise Generalsanierung"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Rail associations from all over Europe are claiming that the German infrastructure manager DB InfraGO is \u201cfailing to provide sufficient quality (and) reliability\u201d. The parties were also quite critical of the Generalsanierung programme \u2013 the country\u2019s railway renovation plan \u2013 which is causing significant disruptions.<\/strong><br \/>\n<span id=\"more-62385\"><\/span>\u201cRail freight operations on the German network become increasingly complex and costly with a lot of uncertainty for customers\u201d, a document signed by 10 industry associations mentioned. The 10 signatories are Slovakian AROSRAIL, Czech ZESNAD, Polish ZNPK, Dutch RailGood, Austrian NEE\u00d6, Italian Fermerci and FerCargo and the European entities ERFA, UIRR and Forum Train Europe.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"readmore\">\n<div class=\"readmore-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/specials\/2024\/06\/18\/german-network-overhaul-at-full-steam-here-are-the-latest-updates\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Bild4_Riedbahn_DB249326-data-128x128.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"readmore-thumbnail\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"readmore-info\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/specials\/2024\/06\/18\/german-network-overhaul-at-full-steam-here-are-the-latest-updates\/\" class=\"readmore-title\">German network overhaul at full steam; here are the latest updates<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<h2>Generalsanierung is just the tip of the iceberg<\/h2>\n<p>According to them, the Generalsanierung programme is \u201cjust the tip of the iceberg\u201d. 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-W\u00f6rth line.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"readmore\">\n<div class=\"readmore-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/infrastructure\/2024\/04\/24\/60-per-cent-of-italian-railways-to-be-closed-in-2024\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Raddoppio-Codogno-Cremona-Mantova-128x128.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"readmore-thumbnail\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"readmore-info\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/infrastructure\/2024\/04\/24\/60-per-cent-of-italian-railways-to-be-closed-in-2024\/\" class=\"readmore-title\">60 per cent of rail capacity in Italy to be unavailable in 2024<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"fluid wp-image-62389 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/The-Generalsanierung-planjpgjpgjpg.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"732\" height=\"874\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/The-Generalsanierung-planjpgjpgjpg.jpg 732w, https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/The-Generalsanierung-planjpgjpgjpg-480x573.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 732px) 100vw, 732px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Generalsanierung plan. Image: \u00a9 Deutsche Bahn<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>An unsolvable problem?<\/h2>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"readmore\">\n<div class=\"readmore-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/corridors\/2024\/07\/29\/hupac-to-implement-temporary-service-to-respond-to-rhine-valley-line-closure\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Hupac-alternative-line-2-128x128.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"readmore-thumbnail\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"readmore-info\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/corridors\/2024\/07\/29\/hupac-to-implement-temporary-service-to-respond-to-rhine-valley-line-closure\/\" class=\"readmore-title\">Hupac to implement temporary service to respond to Rhine Valley line closure<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rail associations from all over Europe are claiming that the German infrastructure manager DB InfraGO is \u201cfailing to provide sufficient quality (and) reliability\u201d. The parties\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16706,72,6974,555,12437,5385,16707,16708,47,4390,560,11238,9977],"tags":[12634],"class_list":["post-216301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arosrail","category-business","category-db-infrago","category-erfa","category-fercargo","category-fermerci","category-fte","category-neeo","category-rail-news","category-railgood","category-uirr","category-zesnad","category-znpk","tag-railfreight"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=216301"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":216304,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216301\/revisions\/216304"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=216301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=216301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=216301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}