Deutsche Bahn has started building overhead contact line islands in Schleswig-Holstein. Battery trains are to be charged here while driving. The aim is to save 10 million liters of diesel per year.
Overhead line islands are designed to charge battery trains while driving. (Source: Deutsche Bahn)
- Under the motto “Island hopping for more climate protection”, Deutsche Bahn has started building overhead contact line islands.
- These are initially created in Schleswig-Holstein. Planning is underway in other states.
- Instead of end-to-end electrification of every kilometer of track, the new technology only requires the electrification of short sections of track or individual stations.
Deutsche Bahn wants to be climate-neutral by 2040. In order to achieve this goal, innovations are required. In this context, the idea of installing solar cells in the track bed caused quite a stir. Now there is the next, very concrete plan.
The first catenary masts, which are part of an improved, sustainable infrastructure solution, were installed in Kiel and in Büchen. The completion of the construction measures is scheduled for the end of 2023. The goal: the diesel locomotives should gradually give way to modern battery trains. However, so that they do not have to be charged for a long time and are located in train stations, they should be charged during the journey.
Under the motto “island hopping” for more climate protection, Deutsche Bahn wants to use more battery-powered trains that charge while driving. (Source: Deutsche Bahn)
The idea: Not the entire railway line is electrified, but only sections via overhead lines. In these sections, which according to the Deutsche Bahn press release are only a few hundred meters to a few kilometers long, the trains charge their batteries and can continue their journey seamlessly in non-electrified sections.
For Schleswig-Holstein alone, this would mean that more than ten million kilometers of rail traffic could be driven electrically in the future. Kilometers on which diesel locomotives have been used up to now. In this context, Deutsche Bahn speaks of a diesel savings volume of 10 million liters of fuel.
After Schleswig-Holstein, the existing overhead lines in Bad Oldesloe and the route between Kiel and Kiel-Hassee are to be expanded from March 2023; From April 2023, the Flensburg route will follow in the direction of Kiel. Preliminary planning has been completed in southern Rhineland-Palatinate and is already underway in the Rhine-Ruhr region.
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