Saxony: Bahn throttles energy consumption at Saxony's train stations

At Chemnitz Central Station, it lights up less during Advent than in previous years.

Saxony: Bahn throttles energy consumption at Saxony's train stations

At Chemnitz Central Station, it lights up less during Advent than in previous years. In addition, Deutsche Bahn has converted the lighting to LED in many places in order to save energy. Likewise in Dresden, Leipzig and many other train stations in Saxony.

Chemnitz (dpa/sn) - LEDs instead of incandescent and halogen lamps, Christmas decorations without lighting, new insulation in office floors: energy consumption is being reduced at many train stations in Saxony. This has been pushed for years, but the energy crisis has given the topic an additional boost, said the head of Chemnitz station management, Ute Stuhr, on Friday. She is responsible for more than 200 train stations between Freiberg and Sonneberg in Thuringia. According to its own statements, Deutsche Bahn invested almost 600,000 euros in Saxony's train stations this year to save energy. That is more than in the two previous years combined, it said.

Example Chemnitz main station: Here the lighting of the platform hall and offices were converted and around 350 lights were replaced by the end of 2021. A number of display boards in the wayfinding system are already running with LEDs, and the rest are to follow soon. Such LEDs are not only particularly efficient and energy-saving, but also last significantly longer than previous light sources, explained Stuhr. A good 181,000 kilowatt hours of electricity have been saved at this station alone in the past five years.

That's not enough for Stuhr. This year she pulled the plug on the Christmas lights on the train station ceiling, the Christmas trees are decorated but without fairy lights and the spotlights on the train station facade remain off. Only two large arches of light with a traditional Erzgebirge motif shine in the station. "They simply belong to our region," said Stuhr.

According to Deutsche Bahn, power consumption at Saxony's train stations has steadily decreased in recent years: while it was 19.4 gigawatt hours in 2020, consumption for this year is expected to be 16.5 gigawatt hours. The large train stations in Leipzig and Dresden are already being operated entirely with electricity from renewable energy sources, and the rate across the country is 62 percent.

At Dresden main station, for example, the reception hall, architectural lighting and floodlights were converted to LEDs, and in Leipzig the lighting on intermediate platforms and hall roofs. In Chemnitz, Leipzig and Dresden, almost 1.6 gigawatt hours of energy have been saved over the past five years.

Savings would also be achieved at smaller stations. "Where light is switched on automatically by so-called twilight switches, we optimize the sensitivity of the sensors," explained a railway spokeswoman. As a result, the light switches on later at dusk and off earlier. However, priority is given to safety, stressed Stuhr. It is better to use one lamp more than one lamp too little. This means that even small train stations are continuously illuminated at night, even if no trains stop there at times.