IRJ at InnoTrans 2024: Giving the opening address at InnoTrans 2024 on September 24, Germany’s federal minister for digital and transport, Dr Volker Wissing, was clear on the role that digital technology will play in German Rail’s (DB) ongoing programme to completely renew the busiest sections of its network.
“Everything that can be digitalised will be,” Wissing said, including signalling and train control with the gradual rollout of ETCS. “We are fully committed to it.”
With work now in progress to set the federal budget for 2025, Wissing said that rail is set to receive its largest-ever government investment of €18.1bn, beating records set over the past two years.
Infrastructure spending is a priority as DB works to overcome a serious renewals backlog and create 91 reliable corridors across Germany, starting with the Reidbahn between Frankfurt and Mannheim which closed for five months on July 15 in order to be “refurbished from scratch,” according to Wissing.
“It’s not business as usual,” Wissing emphasised, noting that the complete closure of this key section was “a stress test for the entire network,” placing serious demands on DB and its contractors.
The days when rail infrastructure was considered from a purely national perspective are now firmly over, according Wissing. He noted that many sections of the German network to be renewed under DB’s major programme form part of European freight corridors, such as those connecting Rotterdam with Genoa, the Rhine with the Alps and Scandinavia with the Mediterranean.
The common European goal is a climate-friendly, affordable and efficient rail system, he said, and today it is unacceptable that trains need to change locomotives and drivers at the border due to differences in national signalling systems.
“You can’t explain this any more,” Wissing said, “We must do everything to promote ETCS further.” And the same applies to the Digital Automatic Coupler (DAC) with its potential to increase the efficiency and reduce the cost of freight operations.
“Without the DAC, rail has no hope of competing with lorries,” Wissing said. “If the railway industry cannot compete against lorries, we cannot have better transport.”
