BERLIN (AP) — One of the busiest railway lines in the world Germanythe 70-kilometer (45-mile) stretch between Frankfurt and Mannheim is closed for five months from Monday as the country launches an effort to whip its notoriously outage-prone network into shape.
State rail operator Deutsche Bahn is closing the route until December 14 and plans a complete overhaul of the tracks, stations and other infrastructure. More than 300 trains a day use the stretch, part of a main north-south route linking Hamburg and Cologne with Stuttgart and Basel in Switzerland, and often experience delays that have repercussions on other parts of the network.
During the closure, all regional trains on the route will be replaced by buses, while long-distance services will be diverted to slower routes.
The €1.3 billion ($1.4 billion) renovation is expected to kick off a broader program to modernize 40 sections of railway by 2030 and improve the reliability of an often underwhelming network. Last month, this frustrated football fans in European Championship hosted in Germanywhich ended on Sunday.
On Friday, Deutsche Bahn said its punctuality during the tournament was “mixed”, adding that it took “full advantage of the rail system, but possibilities were limited by outdated and overloaded infrastructure”.
Transport Minister Volker Wissing said starting the overhaul program before the football tournament would mean even more disruption.
“I took over the dilapidated railway infrastructure, in which not enough was invested by my predecessors for decades,” Wissing, who became transport minister at the end of 2021, told Deutschlandfunk radio on Monday. “We are going to invest enormous sums, historic sums in the railway.”
