FREIGHT RAILWAYS demand electrification to Poland/Czech Republic

The electrification of routes and border crossings is an important component of rail infrastructure – especially for connections to Poland and the Czech Republic (which lead further into (Southeastern) Europe), Germany has a backlog to address. Routes and border crossings that can be traversed continuously by electric locomotives must become standard in an increasingly integrated Europe.

(Berlin) No freight train should have to stop at the border crossing anymore, costing time, money, and capacity. For rail freight transport, particularly relevant, still non-electrified border crossings are those in Görlitz, Forst, Küstrin-Kietz (to Poland) and Bad Brambach, Schirnding, Furth im Wald (to the Czech Republic). They must be electrified in this legislative period (by 2029) – the black-red coalition has announced in the coalition agreement that central parts of the transport infrastructure to Poland and the Czech Republic are to be expanded. Trucks and inland vessels have long been operating seamlessly across borders – an advantage in the competitive transport market.

Roger Mahler, Managing Director of METRANS Rail (Germany) and board member of the FREIGHT RAILWAYS, comments as follows. He is speaking today at the event “Nuremberg – the Gateway to the East? What opportunities does rail electrification hold for the economic location of the Nuremberg metropolitan region?” organized by the IHK Nuremberg, the IHK for Upper Franconia Bayreuth, the Saxon-Bavarian Cities Network, the IG E Nuremberg-Bayreuth-Cheb, and the Rail Electrification Office.

“That central rail routes to the Czech Republic and Poland remain at the level of the 1980s is a testament to poverty. German exports and imports and the entire EU rely on a powerful rail network in Germany. We are talking about climate-friendly transport, yet we have to haul containers with high-tech goods using diesel locomotives across border routes. As a company, we lose time and money with every locomotive change – and with each passing year, we lose trust in transport policy.

The statements in the coalition agreement that transport infrastructure towards Poland and the Czech Republic is to be expanded are a reason for hope – provided one remembers that transport should be shifted to rail. The federal government must correct past oversights: In the 90s and 2000s, highways to Poland and the Czech Republic were consistently expanded across borders, now the rail must be electrified to strengthen its competitiveness against trucks.

Government can quickly do something through electrification

The government can quickly – and incidentally relatively cheaply – do something for the economic location of Germany through electrification. Capacities will be created on new rail routes when freight trains can utilize longer distances more easily, instead of having to share already overloaded routes with passenger traffic today.

Photo: © The FREIGHT RAILWAYS