German railways have been plagued by equipment aging and system failures for years, resulting in a continuous decline in on-time performance. Now, the core north-south corridor is undergoing a comprehensive renovation. Recently, DB InfraGO officially announced that the renovation of the Berlin Hanover corridor will start in October, covering the entire chain of rail power supply signals, and will be constructed in four stages with staggered construction to fill the gaps in the road network's infrastructure over the years.  

Engineering construction scale

The total length of the main line in this renovation is 221 kilometers, with an overall operational radiation of 260 kilometers, and parallel mainline electrification construction is being promoted simultaneously. The project has a duration of 15 months and will be completed in December 2027. The construction includes replacing more than 175 sets of turnouts, renovating 260 kilometers of tracks, retrofitting high-speed ballastless tracks, building 13 kilometers of noise reduction barriers, repairing bridges and updating anti freezing systems, synchronously upgrading traction power supply and intelligent control systems, and completing overall quality improvement of 25 stations along the line.

Staged construction plan

Due to the dense traffic on the main line, the project adopts segmented closed-loop construction to reduce the impact of transportation capacity. From October to December 2026, the eastern section will be closed and the track switches will be replaced. Parallel lines will be put into use to maintain basic traffic before December of the following year. From February to July 2027, the western section will be closed and the bridge will be renovated for power supply. At the end of the year, the entire line will undergo joint debugging and acceptance, and the basic operation of passenger and freight transportation will be guaranteed in stages.  

Industry demands behind the transformation

The national railway infrastructure gap in Germany exceeds 100 billion euros, and old equipment frequently malfunctions. This corridor is a key transportation artery connecting the capital and industrial city clusters. Keywords: railway renovation, Deutsche Bahn infrastructure upgrade

The large-scale renovation is the core measure to make up for the infrastructure arrears and improve the punctuality of train operations. Currently, the total investment and construction contractor information of the project have not been publicly disclosed, and the details of the bidding and station renovation will be released gradually in the future.Editor/Min Jing