In his opening address at InnoTrans 2024, Germany’s Minister for Transport, Volker Wissing said that in the past a project such as the fundamental renewal of a central rail corridor – the Riedbahn between Mannheim and Frankfurt – would have taken 8 years.
However, having had the courage to take the decision to fully close the line, the required works would take just 5 months.
And Germany was investing in rail, he said, 18.1 billion euros in the next budget – an unprecedented amount.
Volker Wissing, Germany’s Minister for Transport, at InnoTrans 2024
This project, the fundamental renewal of the Riedbahn, kicked off in July 2024. As Dr Richard Lutz, CEO of Deutsche Bahn, put it: “We are still a heavy metal industry”. The industry might be modernising with AI, but the railways need physical infrastructure and that needs replacing and upgrading – or else there won’t be any applications for all these digital solutions.
In the case of the Riedbahn in particular, 1,200 pieces of control-command and signalling equipment are to be replaced; and 152 points and 117 kilometres of track will be renewed. Further, four level crossings and 140 kilometres of overhead wires will be modernised. More than 10km of noise barriers will be completely replaced. Furthermore, three new crossovers are being built to increase the line’s capacity by providing alternative routes for trains running at the same time.
The complete renewal of the 70km Riedbahn between Frankfurt and Mannheim, part of the Rhine-Alpine Corridor
© Deutsche Bahn | Oliver Lang
The line is also being equipped with everything necessary for ETCS operation.
Gone are the days, Mr Lutz said, of short-term line closures, single-line closures and attempts to patch up the network while the line was still operational.
Europe-Wide Thinking
Looking at the macro-picture, Mr Wissing said that the time when countries looked solely at their own networks was over. Implementing ETCS and having shared standards was key. It was unacceptable, he said, that trains travelling between Rotterdam and Genoa on the Rhine-Alpine corridor (which also traverses Germany) had to switch locomotives both at the Swiss and the Italian borders because locomotives didn’t carry all the different national systems to allow them to operate along the entire stretch of the route.
The Riedbahn too is part of this corridor.
So a word of caution from Minister Wissing: the introduction of AI and digital technologies must be Europe-wide – we cannot make the same mistakes we made in the past that lead to inefficiencies.
Layering digital solutions on top of the rail infrastructure, Mr Wissing talked about using AI to expand a co-ordinated network timetable across international borders. The Deutschlandtakt – a nationwide timetable centred around efficient connections at major railway nodes – should and could be linked up to the timetables of other European countries. An internationally co-ordinated schedule was already working well for Europe’s night train offering he said, but currently there was no central booking platform for all of Europe’s night trains.
In terms of infrastructure maintenance too, AI is proving extremely useful. A frequently cited example was vegetation management. Vast swathes of data can be analysed by computers and maintenance schedules generated, allowing the renewed infrastructure to be kept in good condition long-term.
The message throughout was clear: unified solutions, shared data, the right regulations – then digital solutions and the as yet only gently tapped opportunities of AI can and will help deliver the kind of infrastructure that will enable the rail industry to provide a good, reliable service to passengers and compete with other modes. As Mr Wissing pointed out, trains were not as flexible as cars and trucks and not as fast as planes but they were greener and more efficient and AI can help with both.
Comment
by Josephine Cordero Sapién
Published
24 Sep 2024
Tags
Artificial Intelligence
Deutschland-Takt
Germany
Infrastructure
InnoTrans 2024
Vegetation Management
In his opening address at InnoTrans 2024, Germany’s Minister for Transport, Volker Wissing said that in the past a project such as the fundamental renewal of a central rail corridor – the Riedbahn between Mannheim and Frankfurt – would have taken 8 years.
However, having had the courage to take the decision to fully close the line, the required works would take just 5 months.
And Germany was investing in rail, he said, 18.1 billion euros in the next budget – an unprecedented amount.
This project, the fundamental renewal of the Riedbahn, kicked off in July 2024. As Dr Richard Lutz, CEO of Deutsche Bahn, put it: “We are still a heavy metal industry”. The industry might be modernising with AI, but the railways need physical infrastructure and that needs replacing and upgrading – or else there won’t be any applications for all these digital solutions.
In the case of the Riedbahn in particular, 1,200 pieces of control-command and signalling equipment are to be replaced; and 152 points and 117 kilometres of track will be renewed. Further, four level crossings and 140 kilometres of overhead wires will be modernised. More than 10km of noise barriers will be completely replaced. Furthermore, three new crossovers are being built to increase the line’s capacity by providing alternative routes for trains running at the same time.
The line is also being equipped with everything necessary for ETCS operation.
Gone are the days, Mr Lutz said, of short-term line closures, single-line closures and attempts to patch up the network while the line was still operational.
Europe-Wide Thinking
Looking at the macro-picture, Mr Wissing said that the time when countries looked solely at their own networks was over. Implementing ETCS and having shared standards was key. It was unacceptable, he said, that trains travelling between Rotterdam and Genoa on the Rhine-Alpine corridor (which also traverses Germany) had to switch locomotives both at the Swiss and the Italian borders because locomotives didn’t carry all the different national systems to allow them to operate along the entire stretch of the route.
The Riedbahn too is part of this corridor.
So a word of caution from Minister Wissing: the introduction of AI and digital technologies must be Europe-wide – we cannot make the same mistakes we made in the past that lead to inefficiencies.
Layering digital solutions on top of the rail infrastructure, Mr Wissing talked about using AI to expand a co-ordinated network timetable across international borders. The Deutschlandtakt – a nationwide timetable centred around efficient connections at major railway nodes – should and could be linked up to the timetables of other European countries. An internationally co-ordinated schedule was already working well for Europe’s night train offering he said, but currently there was no central booking platform for all of Europe’s night trains.
In terms of infrastructure maintenance too, AI is proving extremely useful. A frequently cited example was vegetation management. Vast swathes of data can be analysed by computers and maintenance schedules generated, allowing the renewed infrastructure to be kept in good condition long-term.
The message throughout was clear: unified solutions, shared data, the right regulations – then digital solutions and the as yet only gently tapped opportunities of AI can and will help deliver the kind of infrastructure that will enable the rail industry to provide a good, reliable service to passengers and compete with other modes. As Mr Wissing pointed out, trains were not as flexible as cars and trucks and not as fast as planes but they were greener and more efficient and AI can help with both.