German Cabinet approves giving priority to hydrocarbons on railways
Railway transports of coal, oil and gas will be given priority status, digital affairs and transport minister Volker Wissing announced following Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting.
The measure applies for the coming months. Deutsche Bahn has said it is making the necessary arrangements, which are like to affect passenger traffic.
The measure was approved in anticipation of a looming energy crisis in Europe this winter. European countries are relying less on energy supplies from Russia. In order to compensate for this loss of supply, Germany is reopening some its coal mines.
Coal is usually shipped by barge, but the low-water levels of the Rhine has led to a capacity crunch on this river. Railways have now been reserved for the vital task of distributing the energy supplies. Because the German railway network is already facing significant bottlenecks in a time of heavy construction, compounded by the fact that DB has to unexpectedly replace thousands of potentially faulty sleepers, there is a need for a dedicated path allocation procedure.
This article was first published on RailFreight.com
Further reading:
Accordingly…, a vital, a strategic resource, duly should be awarded basics!
(Low price, standards, now are too costly.
SWL shall be high – and hedged for, by, a high quality, low risk track, a timely…
Broken rails, shall not, remain, by far, most frequent single reason for derailments, etc…)
By a decisive upgrading of tracks, performed at any reinvestment, etc., within a 10 year period the needed shifts will be provided – and railways again a high quality device, a payer!