Meeting of the steering committee of the Saxon-Bavarian network of cities in Zwickau
The Saxon-Bavarian network of cities announces:
The continuation of the electrification project would be possible if the Federal Ministry of Transport would broaden its view and if the federal political will existed.
The Saxon-Bavarian network of cities is calling on the federal government to implement the proposal of the acceleration commission it initiated. According to this proposal, the electrification of heavily used railroad lines no longer requires a cost-benefit assessment because it is generally considered economical. This acceleration of planning and reduction in bureaucracy is also demanded by experts. If this option cannot be implemented quickly due to budgetary concerns, the Lord Mayors, the representatives of the SMWA and the Second Mayor of the City of Cheb are calling for all potential benefits to be taken into account in the next assessment of the Franconia-Saxony Main Line Nuremberg - Dresden - Görlitz / Cheb. This is the result of the most recent meeting of the steering committee of the city network in Zwickau.
To this end, the view of the Federal Ministry of Transport and the federal expert must be broadened in several respects. This is because the last assessment, which was negative for the Franconia-Saxony Main Line, did not take important aspects into account or did not take them sufficiently into account. In passenger transport, this concerns tilting technology, which should also ensure that journey times remain attractive and that all connections are suitable in the future. In freight transport, the realization must grow that the neighbouring Erfurt - Nuremberg high-speed line cannot accommodate the extensive freight traffic as planned. The line is already being used to capacity by the sharp increase in ICE traffic and is closed to rail traffic night after night due to maintenance work in the 22 tunnels with a length of 41 km.
To support the Franconia-Saxony Main Line, the budget committee of the German Bundestag has decided to recalculate the cost-benefit ratio, which the mayors expressly welcome. According to this, the benefit of a CO2 ton saved is to be set four times higher, as is already the case with local transport projects. The mayors hope that this will represent a significant step towards economic efficiency.
The Lord Mayors are also looking at international passenger and freight transport between Central and Eastern European countries and southern Germany as a further benefit: "These are of growing importance, but have hardly been taken into account in previous assessments of the Franconia-Saxony Main Line." Because they are increasing sharply and the long-distance road network is becoming increasingly congested, the rail routes must be expanded to ensure efficient and economical rail transport between east and west and north-east and south-west. Federal policy should adapt and expand the assessment criteria for demand plan projects so that the economic and geopolitical interests of Germany as a leading industrial nation can be taken into account when expanding infrastructure.
The remaining electrification of the Franconia-Saxony main line from Hof and Cheb to Nuremberg is of central importance for traffic from Poland and the Czech Republic to southern Germany. This is because there is only one electrified railroad line along the 811 km long German-Czech border: the Elbe Valley Railway from Děčín to Dresden. By comparison, the German-Austrian border is almost the same length at 815 km. However, there are seven electrified border crossings there.
The Elbe Valley Railway runs from south to north and, despite recent capacity expansions, is working to capacity. Mud and debris avalanches, flooding and other consequences of extreme weather are increasingly leading to line closures. The diversionary traffic then backs up in Cheb due to the switch to diesel locomotives.
"Well over 30 years after the opening of the borders and 20 years after the eastward expansion of the EU, we still have an incomprehensible state of affairs. When will this drama finally be recognized in Berlin?" ask the Saxon and Bavarian mayors, because "there is an urgent need for action in view of the geopolitical necessity to better connect the states on the EU's eastern border and the Ukraine with southern Germany and south-western Europe".
In the revision of the trans-European core network, the EU is sticking to fully electrified rail routes. It has largely financed the extensive expansion and modernization of the railroad lines in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
"We have done our homework," says the second mayor of Cheb, Michal Pospisil, referring to the expansion of the railroad line from Pilsen to the western district of Cheb-Skalka, seven kilometers to the German border, which was completed in 2012. In addition, the Czech government is planning a branch from the planned high-speed line Prague - Dresden towards Karlovy Vary, Cheb and Nuremberg, which will speed up the Nuremberg - Prague connection. "However, there is no longer even a prospect of electrification to Nuremberg after the Federal Ministry of Transport halted planning almost two years ago," the mayors of the network of cities point out.
The mayors are appealing to the federal government to finally resume planning for electrification. If no solution is found here, the previous planning results are in danger of becoming obsolete. As the procedures still required will take several years, the difficult budgetary situation can be used to achieve readiness for construction. "Even with the greatest optimism, construction will not be possible until the early 1930s anyway," say the mayors realistically.