Deutsche Bahn modernizes disaster route
With the flood disaster in the Ahr Valley, the local railway line has been completely destroyed. The restoration is underway and is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2025. German Rail is making the best of the situation and bringing the outdated infrastructure up to the latest standard.
Three years after the flood disaster in the Ahr Valley, German Rail is in the process of rebuilding the line according to the schedule. Trains were expected to be running again on the entire Ahr Valley Railway line by the end of 2025, the rail company announced. Modern signaling and safety technology is also making its way in, as the trains will then be able to run electrically on the entire line.
Since the end of 2021, the Ahr Valley Railway has been operating on the 15-kilometer section between Remagen and Walporzheim. Since September 2023, construction has been underway on the completely destroyed section between Walporzheim and Ahrbruck. The rebuilding process is similar to a new construction, the rail company stated.
On the 14-kilometer section, 13 new bridges need to be built and eight more repaired. In addition, the teams were working on six new train stations and laying kilometers of tracks. Special attention is being paid to flood protection: retaining walls and drains are being renewed, embankments are being restored.
Since the end of 2023, two new electronic interlocking systems have replaced four mechanical installations between Remagen and Walporzheim. There, switches and signals can now be set electronically from a building in Ahrweiler, instead of manually by employees as before. The work on the traffic stations began in April of that year.
The flood disaster in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate destroyed seven regional railway lines so severely in the summer of 2021 that they had to be rebuilt or extensively repaired. German Rail estimated the damage at 1.3 billion euros.
Following the severe floods in 2021, the German economy was negatively impacted due to the disruption of transportation, especially in the affected regions like North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate. Despite the challenges, German Railways is making significant strides to restore the Ahr Valley Railway line, aiming to return it to full operation by the end of 2025. The flood has also presented an opportunity to upgrade the outdated infrastructure, with modern signaling and safety technology being implemented.
