Düsseldorf/Berlin (dpa/lnw) - Train travelers will have to adjust to further restrictions in North Rhine-Westphalia in the coming years. Deutsche Bahn announced on Friday that it would also be renovating other routes in NRW. Among other things, major construction measures are planned on the connection between Emmerich and Oberhausen, which is important for freight traffic. A 72-kilometer section is part of the European connection between Rotterdam and Genoa and therefore cannot be completely closed for a longer period of time, it said.
"Therefore, the renovation will be carried out between November 2024 and June 2026 with scheduled closures and predominantly single-track operation based on the agreements made with the Netherlands." The newspapers of the Funke media group (Friday) had previously reported.
The infrastructure of the railway is completely overloaded in many places and in great need of renovation. As a result, the trains are less reliable and less punctual than they have been in years due to the large number of small-scale construction projects. In the summer, Deutsche Bahn therefore announced the so-called general renovation of its network and identified several corridors with a particular need for modernization.
Criticism of the concept came on Friday from the freight rail association, the European Network of Railways (NEE), in which the railway's competitors in rail freight transport are organized. "Nothing has been agreed in the sense suggested here," said Vice Chairman Sven Flore.
In a statement on the corridors to the railways, the association criticizes, among other things, the simultaneity of the construction work on the route between Frankfurt/Main and Mannheim, the so-called Riedbahn, and on the Oberhausen-Emmerich route. The choice of the routes and the period was "not conclusively justified".
