Deutsche Bahn wants to be climate-neutral by 2040. In the north in particular, however, there is a lack of overhead lines, and diesel locomotives often still run there. Instead of completely electrifying the routes at great expense, individual sections are now to be upgraded: battery trains can then be used there.
With so-called overhead line islands, Deutsche Bahn wants to advance the electrification of its infrastructure. The construction of the first islands has now started in Schleswig-Holstein. Routes are not completely equipped with overhead lines, only shorter sections. Battery trains will then be used on the routes, which will charge their batteries on the electrified sections of the route and use the stored energy to travel the remaining sections. The planning and costs of such islands are significantly lower than the electrification of entire routes. The battery trains come from Stadler. The state of Schleswig-Holstein has ordered 55 of them there, and the first are expected for May next year.
In a first phase, the railway will add an additional contact wire to the stations in Kiel and Büchen in Schleswig-Holstein. 30 new catenary masts are planned there. By the end of 2023, overhead line islands are to be built away from train stations along the west coast of the federal state, in Heide, Husum and Tönning. Deutsche Bahn is also planning overhead line islands outside of Schleswig-Holstein: in southern Rhineland-Palatinate and in the Rhine-Ruhr region in North Rhine-Westphalia.
By 2040, Deutsche Bahn wants all of its traffic to be climate-neutral. “So creative solutions like the overhead line islands for battery trains also help us,” said Bahn Infrastructure Board Member Berthold Huber.
But until then there is still a lot to do. Only around 62 percent of the railway tracks in Germany have an overhead line. At just under 30 percent, Schleswig-Holstein is even far below that. With the overhead line islands, the proportion of routes on which locomotives with electric drives can drive will more than double, according to Bahn, to almost 68 percent. This could significantly reduce the diesel fleet there, at least in passenger transport.
However, the majority of Deutsche Bahn diesel locomotives are used for freight transport at marshalling yards. The group wants to reduce their number to zero in the medium term. However, battery locomotives are not an alternative due to their lack of power. Instead, the railways use hybrid and so-called two-power locomotives for freight transport, which also have a diesel engine, but can also use them if overhead lines are available.
