DB draws up five-point shake-up of troubled corridor renovation model
Published on 2026-08-12
Deutsche Bahn is planning a shake-up of its much-criticised Generalsanierung programme for comprehensively renovating Germany’s busiest rail corridors, according to reports in the German media. A five-point plan drawn up under DB CEO Evelyn Palla would include cutting costs by spacing corridor renovations further apart, setting clearer post-renovation guarantees and improving diversion routes for rail freight.
Manager Magazin says it has seen an internal strategy paper setting out the main contours of the five-point plan, which was drawn up in recent weeks under Palla to address problems with the Generalsanierung (comprehensive renovation) programme.
The programme is intended to comprehensively modernise around 40 heavily used routes by 2036, generally through full closures lasting several months. The goal had been to cut down on the disruption caused by numerous incremental maintenance works, accepting a longer, more disruptive blockade upfront so renewal work can be bundled into one window and repeated closures avoided for years afterwards.
However, several of the flagship Generalsanierung projects, most recently Hamburg–Berlin, have challenged that premise. The key mixed-traffic corridor was closed for more than 10 months rather than the six months originally envisaged, yet signalling and commissioning work has continued after reopening, with freight operators also criticising follow-up testing and further works after the blockade ended.
Announcing a review of the programme last month, Palla said DB would take another comprehensive look at “the way we deal with corridor renovations, how we plan, how we implement, how we put [them] into operation”. The resulting five-point plan has reportedly begun to take shape.
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Palla’s five-point plan
According to Manager Magazin, the proposed changes would:
- Cut costs by carrying out fewer corridor renovations in rapid succession and breaking contracts into smaller packages to increase competition.
- Improve freight diversion routes after operators complained of unreliable alternatives and lengthy detours during previous closures.
- Prepare corridors for ETCS, even where the digital signalling system itself is not installed during the renovation.
- Set clearer post-renovation guarantees, including how long routes should remain free of further works and what quality improvements should be achieved.
- Reopen routes progressively, allowing testing, commissioning and early technical problems to be dealt with in stages rather than returning an entire corridor to service at once.
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1. Cutting costs
The first element of the reported plan would focus on bringing costs down. DB reportedly intends to carry out fewer corridor renovations in rapid succession and divide future contracts into smaller packages in an attempt to increase competition, including among medium-sized contractors.
Manager Magazin pointed to the Riedbahn as a warning case, reporting that the cost of the first Generalsanierung between Frankfurt am Main and Mannheim had risen from an originally estimated €500 million to at least €1.5 billion.
2. Freight diversions in focus
One of the five measures is heavily directed at freight. DB reportedly intends to put greater emphasis on diversionary routes after previous concepts led to complaints from private freight operators about unreliable operations and lengthy detours, with private operators saying some industrial customers have already shifted traffic back to road. The German freight association Die Güterbahnen, for example, has repeatedly criticised the availability and resilience of diversionary capacity during the programme, including during the extended closure of the Hamburg–Berlin corridor.
Meanwhile, German news agency dpa reported that DB wants corridor renovations to be coordinated more closely with other construction projects, reducing the risk that delays cause major closures to overlap and put further pressure on available network capacity.
The wider question of how corridor closures are coordinated with pressures elsewhere on the network has also come to the fore this month along the Rhine, where the new Transport Minister Steffen Bilger criticised the timing of the current Troisdorf–Wiesbaden closure as low water levels increased the need to shift freight from barges to rail. He described the loss of railway capacity as having created “very unfavourable circumstances”.
3. Digitalisation and ETCS
Digitalisation and digital signalling are also under scrutiny. According to Manager Magazin, DB intends to ensure that renovated corridors are at least prepared for future ETCS installation, amid criticism that the lengthy blockades have not always been used to install the system in full. Hamburg–Berlin, for example, reopened only “ETCS-ready”, meaning further work and track possessions will still be required when ETCS is eventually installed.
DB reportedly attributes its caution partly to regulatory requirements and lengthy transition periods for operators to retrofit their rolling stock. The wider ETCS rollout is not expected to gather pace until the 2030s, despite the backdrop of Germany’s already severely delayed deployment: less than 2% of the federal rail network is currently equipped with the system.
4. How long will the fix last?
Point four would make DB more explicit about what each renovation is supposed to deliver once work is complete. The company reportedly wants to set measurable expectations for the quality improvement achieved and the level of disruption that should remain afterwards.
It would also state more clearly and reliably how long each individual route can be kept free from further construction work. DB originally promised ten construction-free years after a Generalsanierung, before subsequently reducing that guarantee to five. Manager Magazin does not say whether the latest plan would weaken the five-year commitment further.
5. How to reopen
The final point deals with how renovated routes are returned to service. Rather than waiting for an entire corridor to be commissioned at once, DB reportedly intends to reopen routes progressively, while tests, acceptance procedures and the commissioning of signalling and safety equipment would be planned and carried out in stages.
The change appears to draw directly on the experience of Hamburg–Berlin, where signalling work and other follow-up measures have continued after reopening. The idea is to leave more room for the technical and operational problems that can emerge during commissioning, rather than treating the end of the main blockade as the point at which the entire corridor must immediately return to full operation.
‘A clear need for improvement’
Despite the planned changes, Palla reportedly intends to retain the basic Generalsanierung model of lengthy full closures, which she continues to regard as the right approach for improving the condition of the network.
Transport Minister Bilger has also backed the wider rethink rather than abandoning the programme, telling dpa earlier this week there was “a clear need for improvement in the processes and results of the corridor upgrades”.
“After a line has been upgraded, it must function measurably better than before, and further construction work must not be required in the short term,” he said.
More detailed plans for the revised renovation concept are expected in the coming weeks.
Author: Thomas Wintle