Six die in head on collision in Germany as expansion on rail electrification shows little or no progress

Admin I Sunday, November 17, 2024

 

OCHTRUP, Germany  –  Six people were today killed in a road accident near the western German town of Ochtrup in the early hours of Sunday, police in the town near the Dutch border reported.

The collision occurred when a vehicle skidded into the path of oncoming traffic, hitting another vehicle head-on near a railway crossing, police said. This is taking place just as expansion on electrification of rail networks has made little or no progress.

One vehicle carrying two people caught alight and burnt out, killing both the driver and passenger. All four people in the other vehicle were also killed, the police report said.

A police spokeswoman said identification of the victims was proceeding, with a specialist team deployed to the site of the accident to ascertain the precise course of events.

Meanwhile, the expansion and electrification of the rail network in Germany has made little progress for years as part of effort to improve transportation.

Only around 66 kilometres of track on the German rail network will be equipped with electric overhead lines in the coming year. This is according to an answer from the Federal Ministry of Transport to a parliamentary question from the Left Party, which has been made available to the Deutsche Presse-Agentur.

This means that in 2025, the federal government and railways will still fall well short of the overhead line expansion required to achieve their own targets.

If there is no electricity on a line, trains usually run on climate-damaging diesel engines. The federal government wants to supply around 75 per cent of the rail network with traction current by 2030. Currently, the proportion is around 60 per cent. Because particularly busy routes usually have overhead lines, the proportion of rail transport that is electrically powered is significantly higher at 90 per cent.

Around 600 kilometres per year would be necessary

In order to achieve the government’s target, an additional 600 kilometres of electric lines would have to be added each year, according to calculations by the Alliance for Rail and the Association of German Transport Companies (VDV). Over the past 13 years, an average of only around 80 kilometres have been added each year.

‘Electrification not only makes the railway more environmentally friendly, it also increases capacity and thus directly benefits rail customers,’ said Left Party MP Victor Perli. ‘But the figures confirm once again that the traffic lights have not gone beyond fine words when it comes to the electrification of the railways.’ The coalition of the SPD, Greens and FDP, which has since collapsed, is failing to achieve its goal. The task now is to quickly secure the financial resources for the planned electrification in the coming year.

The fact that 90 per cent of transport is already electrified is a top figure among comparable European countries, according to Deutsche Bahn. In addition, a large number of non-electrified lines are used for regional transport. ‘Here, the decision as to whether a route should be electrified and upgraded lies with the responsible authorities – usually the federal states.’

The focus is currently not on new construction and expansion

The expansion of the rail network is progressing at a similarly slow pace as electrification. According to the ministry’s response, the rail network is set to grow by just 71 kilometres in the coming year. However, the federal government and Deutsche Bahn have long emphasised that they are currently focusing primarily on renovating and modernising the existing network rather than expanding it.

Among other things, the railway wants to comprehensively renovate more than 40 busy rail corridors by 2030. This should make rail transport much more reliable again. In October, more than one in three long-distance trains were delayed again. By 2027, Deutsche Bahn is aiming for a punctuality rate of around 75 per cent on long-distance services.