DB Netz: Digitalisation can result in up to 35 per cent more rail capacity
Like in many other European countries, the German rail sector is currently reaching its growth limits. In addition to bottlenecks in rolling stock and employees, there is also a lack of infrastructure capacity, says Philipp Bührsch, director of Digital Rail Germany at DB Netz AG. “It is neither financially nor socio-politically feasible to grow in capacity through a classic expansion of the route network.”
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Thanks for some initiative statements which promises some additional capacity. Unfortunately the accident by exploring a tunnel for the new railway line Karlsruhe Basel showed that a lot of investments is infrastructure is necessary to maintain railway traffic flow as a series of secondary lines are up to now not sufficiently equipped and the existing infrastructure is not prepared to compete with an increase of rail transport.
DB netz should contact SBB Infrastruktur. They updated a line in 2017 from ZUB/Integra (swiss safety devices) to ETCS level 2. They expected a 30% capacity increase. It seems afterwards that the capacity of this track has dropped from 10%.