The condition of the German rail network, which is the cause of many delays, continued to deteriorate in 2022. Deutsche Bahn gives its own infrastructure a grade of 3.01, as can be seen from the latest network status report that the new rail company InfraGo recently published. The year before the grade was 2.93. Values for 2023 are not yet available.
More than half of the network portfolio assessed was in mediocre, poor or deficient condition, the report says. “The condition of the rail infrastructure has deteriorated in recent years because there were not enough funds available to renew enough systems,” writes InfraGo boss Philipp Nagl.
Most important route kilometers in particularly poor condition
The routes with the highest capacity, which are particularly important for stability and punctuality across the network, were particularly vulnerable. This part of the infrastructure covers around 3,500 kilometers of routes, which corresponds to around ten percent of the entire route network. The railway only gives a grade of 3.15 for this area. The tracks and switches in particular are in a worse condition there than in the rest of the network. More than a quarter of the tracks would have to be replaced in the medium term.
The railway wants to tackle the problems in the coming years with the general renovation of dozens of heavily used routes. It starts in July on the Riedbahn between Frankfurt and Mannheim. It will be completely closed for around five months and fundamentally modernized. The following year it was the turn of the Berlin-Hamburg route.
Due to the infrastructure in need of renovation, the railway’s punctuality last year was worse than it has been for many years. Around every third long-distance train was delayed.
Greens propose rail funds
Despite the budget crisis, the Greens are demanding more money for the railway – financed with loans. “The network’s backlog now amounts to 90.3 billion euros,” said railway policy spokesman Matthias Gastel to the “Tagesspiegel”. “This cannot be achieved with the regular budget.” For the construction and expansion of railway lines, Gastel proposes a multi-year rail fund based on the Austrian model – and with it additional federal debt. For the restructuring, he can imagine further increasing the railway’s equity capital.
