To realise a significant shift of traffic to the railways to achieve the climate protection targets in the transport sector, the German rail network must be further electrified in the coming years, says the German industry association VDV. This could however be done at a faster pace by doing away with a preliminary environmental impact assessment and the planning approval requirement.
“The most efficient and cost-effective form of electrification is still the overhead line”, says Ingo Wortmann, President of the VDV. However, the construction of overhead lines fails in practice due to excessively lengthy and complicated planning and approval processes, he adds.
In Germany, currently around 60 percent of the of the railway lines are electrified. The VDV advocates a degree of electrification of 75 percent of the network. In a position paper, the industry experts underline why electrification is still the best form of railway operation and propose changes to be able to electrify the German network faster
No more planning approval requirements
In December 2020, a new act named the ‘Investment Accelaration Act’ came into force in Germany, which is intended to facilitate the implementation of certain projects by waiving the need for planning approval. Related to railway, these include the installation of digital signalling and safety technology, the (barrier-free) reconstruction of platforms and the construction of noise barriers for noise abatement.
Also, the environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) are made easier in several cases. Now, to equip an existing railway line with an overhead line of a length less than 15 kilometres, a so-called site-specific preliminary assessment must be carried out. Should the result of this assessment be that the project does not trigger an EIA obligation, no plan approval or plan authorisation is required anymore.