There is no respite for Germany’s railways. The most ambitious network renewal project, namely the radical modernisation of the Hamburg-Berlin line, presented by infrastructure manager DB InfraGo as a textbook example of works planning, has not passed the test with flying colours. On the contrary, it has exposed delays and shortcomings, as well as technological choices that are anything but advanced. In the railways’ intentions, the project known as "Generalsanierung", or complete renewal, would involve a prolonged closure of the line, with inevitable consequences, but with the advantage of concentrating all works at the same time and within a fixed schedule.
That forecast was the first not to be met, as the six months set out during the planning phase proved so unrealistic that the timetable was later updated to nine months. In the end, even that was not enough, as the works continued for a further two and a half months. As a result, after the full closure of the Hamburg-Berlin line began on 1 August 2025, the final section was reopened for operation only on 14 June 2026.
DB InfraGo’s decision to use the complete renewal programme, introduced for the first time in 2022, marked a change of direction from the previous approach, which involved limited works spread over time. In the network manager’s plans, the "Generalsanierung" model is intended to cover around 40 rail corridors in Germany, concentrating all comprehensive renewal works in a single operation.
But on the Hamburg-Berlin line, this strategy has exposed what has proved to be a far from secondary limitation: the definition of alternative routes designed to deal with the prolonged closure. According to operators, the alternatives proved fragile and insufficient from several points of view. Die Güterbahnen (German association for rail freight transport) said the closure led to more than 300 days of total service interruption and exposed "significant shortcomings in planning", sluggishness and disorganisation on worksites, and showed that the concept of "Generalsanierung" had failed the test. As could easily have been expected, freight services paid the highest price, with route diversions, higher costs, longer journey times and, in some cases, train cancellations. In truth, passenger transport was not immune from problems either, with major disputes over the funding of replacement bus services.
But the most paradoxical aspect, and the one that calls into question the very strategy of complete renewal, is that the financial resources available reduced the technical scope of the project. The original plan envisaged the full implementation of the European-standard ETCS signalling system, but DB InfraGo abandoned its immediate installation to avoid the cost of duplicating equipment along the line. The Hamburg-Berlin line was therefore reopened only as "ETCS-ready", and Die Güterbahnen, while stressing that the transition will take place only in the early 2030s, is already predicting further rail service interruptions as inevitable, with unavoidable negative repercussions. This contradicts the intention of concentrating all works in a single operation. According to operators, less than 2% of Germany’s rail network currently uses the ETCS standard, while railway undertakings are instead forced to make substantial investments to modernise and equip rolling stock without deriving any practical benefit.
And as if that were not enough, in the background to this situation there is the freeze on federal funding for rail modernisation. Government sources admit that more than 90 capacity enhancement projects outside the "Generalsanierung" plan have effectively been suspended or postponed. These include works that could have provided relief on alternative routes precisely during the full closure of the Hamburg-Berlin line. At this point, a more rigorous review by the railways of the complete renewal projects already scheduled cannot be ruled out, in order to assess whether the closures are justifiable and whether the costs are compatible with ensuring technological modernisation to European standards.
Piermario Curti Sacchi
