Germany scales back rail overhaul: only 13 of 21 main lines by 2031
Berlin and Deutsche Bahn postpone eight major line renovations, including Stuttgart–Ulm and Frankfurt–Heidelberg, and drop the target date for the whole program.
Symbolic image · Photo: Spoorjan / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped and resized)
Germany's state railway Deutsche Bahn and the federal Transport Ministry are scaling back their flagship program of full-scale line renovations. Only 13 of the 21 busy corridors originally planned will be overhauled by 2031, the two said Friday. Eight projects have been postponed indefinitely, including Bremen–Bremerhaven, Koblenz–Mainz, Stuttgart–Ulm, Frankfurt–Heidelberg, Mannheim–Karlsruhe, Bremen–Hamburg and Würzburg–Nuremberg. “No corridor renovations are being cancelled, only postponed,” the statement said. Priorities for the years from 2032 will be set next year.
Under the revised plan, work on Lehrte–Berlin, Rosenheim–Salzburg and Fulda–Hanau is due in 2027, followed by Hamburg–Hanover and Aachen–Cologne in 2029. There is no longer an end date for the roughly 40 planned overhauls; the previous target was 2036. A five-point plan calls for better-prepared diversion routes, phased reopening of renovated lines and the digital ETCS signaling system as standard. Transport Minister Steffen Bilger said the idea of corridor renovations was right, but that in the past implementation had too often failed to deliver the desired results.
Rail CEO Evelyn Palla announced a review over the summer of the concept adopted by her predecessor Richard Lutz and former minister Volker Wissing. “We want to carry out the renovations more efficiently,” she said. The overhaul of the Hamburg–Berlin line finished six weeks late and was followed by delays and cancellations. Fewer than 60% of long-distance trains ran on time in the first half of 2026. The railway and government point instead to the Riedbahn line, where trains leave the renovated section 20% more punctually than they enter it.