Federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU) wants to simplify the electrification of railway lines in Germany. In the evaluation process for such projects, criteria such as climate protection should be given greater weight, said Scheuer of the Augsburger Allgemeine (Saturday). So far, the projects have often failed because they fail the performance audit.

Faster expansion in regional and local transport “I want to change this evaluation procedure. If we continue as before, we will not be able to achieve climate-friendly, electrified route planning. I want to make regional and local transport routes faster can be realized “, explained Scheuer.

The goal of the federal government is 70 percent of distances under power up to the year 2025. But in recent years only a few kilometers have been connected to the power grid. Most recently 61 percent of the rail network in Germany had overhead lines to drive electric locomotives.

However, more than 90 percent of the transport performance is provided on electrified rail lines. Diesel locomotives mostly run on branch lines. Because combustion engines are supposed to disappear from the rails, there are already tests with alternatives, such as hydrogen trains or hybrid trains (use of overhead lines and batteries).

(tiw)