Since the turn of the year, DB InfraGO has brought together the DB Group's track and station activities under one roof. The company was created by merging the Group's two infrastructure divisions, DB Netz and DB Station&Service.
The main focus is on the existing network and stations. Funding for the necessary work has already been secured for 2024 and 2025. Participants at the kick-off event in Berlin learnt about the concrete measures to be implemented by 2030 at seven market stands:
- By 2030, DB InfraGO will have completely renewed more than 4,000 kilometres of heavily used track - bundled into 40 high-performance corridors.
- DB InfraGO is gradually modernising the approximately 25,000 kilometres of track in the above-ground network so that the condition of the facilities in this area will also improve.
- DB InfraGO wants to develop the stations holistically into attractive stations of the future. They are to become mobility hubs and calling cards for towns and communities.
- DB InfraGO is rapidly increasing the capacity and efficiency of the existing network with, among other things, additional transfer points, more overtaking opportunities for trains and additional signals to reduce the block intervals between trains.
- DB InfraGO plans to digitise many more lines by 2030, thereby increasing the capacity of the existing infrastructure.
- DB InfraGO is building urgently needed service facilities for the preparation and follow-up of train journeys, in particular sidings, and is also expanding existing facilities.
- DB InfraGO is creating new capacity by extending, rebuilding and electrifying lines in order to gradually implement the Deutschlandtakt.
Richard Lutz, Chairman of the Management Board of DB, explains: "We are experiencing the biggest turning point for the railways in Germany since the railway reform. The rail infrastructure is too old, too susceptible to faults and in many places has reached its limits. This is also shown by the network status report we have prepared for 2022. The operational impact on people and the economy is massive. To reverse this downward trend, we are working with the German government to renew both the rail network and the stations. "
Volker Wissing, Federal Minister of Digital Affairs and Transport, concludes: "For the first time, InfraGO has concrete public-interest objectives in its statutes, and with the so-called Infraplan we are also creating an instrument that backs up these objectives with concrete measures. We have set ourselves ambitious targets because we take the situation very seriously. We know how dissatisfied customers are with the railways and we understand that very well. That's why it's simply our job to work on ambitious plans to improve things quickly.
