General renovation of Berlin-Hamburg: Where are problems looming and what will be expensive

In just over two months, Deutsche Bahn will launch its next major project: The 280-kilometer-long, heavily traveled route between Berlin and Hamburg will be completely closed and renovated for nine months starting in August. The last remaining contracts for the major construction project have now been awarded, DB announced this week. "Nothing now stands in the way of the scheduled start of the general renovation on August 1."

But not everything is going according to plan – and there are also compromises in the general renovation concept: For example, the upgrade of the line with the modern, Europe-wide ETCS train control system, which was confirmed in November, has been postponed for the time being, until the early 2030s. "At this point, the fleets operating on the line can be converted to ETCS-capable vehicles. This will avoid the complex and costly duplication of equipment," is the official statement. However, there also appear to be other reasons for the postponement.

An employee of the renowned railway infrastructure company Spitzke, which is now also involved in the Hamburg-Berlin project following the Riedbahn renovation, recently cited other reasons in a presentation to business owners: Siemens, which provides ETCS, simply has no more capacity and has not submitted a bid. Therefore, a linear Hitachi system will now be installed across the board and later replaced, he reported. The written presentation was briefly available online but has since been deleted. The document is available to RND.

With regard to Hamburg-Berlin, it states: “According to the current state of planning and investment preparation, no general renovation will take place, but only extended maintenance with isolated crossing points in a mitigated form.”

Many are also anxiously awaiting the diversion plan: While long-distance trains between Hamburg and Berlin will continue to run directly—albeit 45 minutes longer via Stendal and Uelzen—local trains will mostly have to resort to bus replacement services during the renovations. This costs commuters time.

Freight railways are also completely dependent on rail. "Many of our questions remain unanswered," criticizes Peter Westenberger, Managing Director of the Freight Railways Industry Association. "DB has further reduced the construction volume of the XXL closure. It remains a mystery to us how Deutsche Bahn justifies the long closure of nine months."

During this time, freight traffic is sometimes diverted for hundreds of kilometers. These diversions are also partly in poor condition. "There is also no plan for how traffic would be directed if an incident occurs on a diversion," complains Westenberger. The full closure would cause millions of euros in economic damage for all railways.

Just a few days ago, the Munich-based Ifo Institute published a study by railway expert Felix Berschin, initially reported on by Der Tagesspiegel. Berschin reviewed numerous railway reports and concluded: The billions of euros the federal government has invested in Deutsche Bahn have made less progress than expected in the renovation of the rail network and instead primarily benefited the railway construction industry. The number of switches, tracks, and other components installed increased by a good 20 percent between 2011 and 2024, but the federal government had to invest four times as much in 2024 as in 2011.

The Spitzke employee also sees an imbalance: The railway has reduced its own planning and construction management capacities, resulting in a shortage of trained personnel and in-depth knowledge. DB InfraGo currently awards contracts based solely on price. At the same time, there are more tenders than construction companies can complete. "So there's no real competition anymore. As a result, construction projects are increasingly being offered at exorbitant prices."

The employee is convinced that this can only be changed if companies plan for the long term and expand their staff accordingly. "The solution is for the railway to enter into cooperation agreements with the implementing partners over a multi-year planning period."