{"id":301574,"date":"2025-07-29T15:57:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T15:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/301574\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T15:57:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T15:57:09","slug":"how-can-germanys-railways-become-more-climate-resilient-dw-07-29-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/301574\/","title":{"rendered":"How can Germany’s railways become more climate resilient? \u2013 DW \u2013 07\/29\/2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emergency services\u00a0were met with a scene of destruction. On Sunday evening, the grey-yellow cars\u00a0of a regional train had derailed<\/a> and crashed into each other\u00a0near Riedlingen in southwestern Germany<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It soon became clear that the train driver, a trainee, and one passenger were killed in the accident. More than 40 out of around 100 passengers were injured, some of them seriously.<\/p>\n

Heavy rain in the area had apparently caused a sewer shaft to overflow, triggering a landslide directly onto the railway line and derailing the train.<\/p>\n

As man-made climate change<\/a> increases the frequency of heavy rain, storms\u00a0and other extreme weather events,<\/a> \u00a0railways are increasingly\u00a0affected.<\/p>\n

\"FirstHeavy rain has caused the train to derail on Sunday, July 27Image: Thomas Warnack\/dpa\/picture alliance<\/p>\n

Trains still cleaner\u00a0and safer than cars<\/p>\n

Overall, however, traveling by train is not only more sustainable than flying, it is also far safer than driving cars. Moreover, in recent years, the EU region has seen a decline in fatalities from train accidents.<\/p>\n

To prevent landslides and flooding of road underpasses during heavy rainfall, the German railway company Deutsche Bahn<\/a> has been working on a\u00a0heavy rainfall plan:\u00a0When water damages a section of railway, it is usually detected before the next train approaches.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Flooding has been a serious problem in the past, for example, with the\u00a02021\u00a0flood disaster in the Ahr Valley<\/a> in western Germany and neighboring regions, which killed 185 people.<\/p>\n

The railway lines through the Ahr Valley and the neighboring Eifel mountain range still remain partially closed<\/a>\u00a0to traffic.\u00a0On the Ahr river, the floods destroyed a total of 15 railway bridges.\u00a0Several bridges in the Eifel region need to be rebuilt.<\/p>\n

New bridges are\u00a0being designed to better withstand\u00a0extreme weather. The new structures will largely do without central pillars, to reduce\u00a0exposure to water pressure and debris during floods.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0large part of the investment of around \u20ac500 million ($578m) is being spent on the electrification of two lines, which were previously served by diesel engines.<\/p>\n

Once the electricity for the electric trains comes from renewable energy sources, they will emit significantly less greenhouse gases than diesel locomotives.<\/p>\n

\"ReconstructionNew bridges in the Ahr valley are being designed to be more resilient to climate changeImage: Marc John\/Bonn.digital\/picture alliance<\/p>\n

How to safeguard trains from fire\u00a0and strong wind?<\/p>\n

However, this year’s early summer was marked less by rain than by periods of heat and drought<\/a> in large parts of Germany. The resulting\u00a0forest fires and fires<\/a>\u00a0along the railroad infrastructure forced connections to be cancelled or rerouted.<\/p>\n

To mitigate this, railway teams regularly trim vegetation in a six-meter-wide corridor along the tracks.<\/p>\n

Until 2023, Deutsche Bahn used the controversial herbicide glyphosate<\/a>, whereas\u00a0now it uses\u00a0the less environmentally harmful<\/a> pelargonic acid.<\/p>\n

Since 2024, Deutsche Bahn has been testing whether fire\u00a0risk can be minimized by watering embankments with specially equipped trains. This\u00a0technique is primarily intended for use during hazardous tasks, such as welding work on rails during drought periods.<\/p>\n

Train traffic is also at risk from strong winds that can bring down trees from outside the six-meter safety zone. These trees are monitored by Digital Vegetation Management, the railway’s AI system. Fed with satellite images and video recordings of specific routes, it is\u00a0designed to\u00a0issue warnings of potentially dangerous trees.<\/p>\n

A hotter climate triggers more faults on the line<\/p>\n

In order to adapt its infrastructure to climate change<\/a>, the German railway company also sought advice from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.<\/p>\n

According to a study published shortly before the 2021 Ahr Valley floods, on days with temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit), there are on average 4.1 more fault reports in each of Germany’s 34 regional railway districts than on days below 30 degrees. At temperatures above 32 degrees, this figure rises to 5.1 more fault reports.<\/p>\n

In the past, extreme heat even caused rails to bend. On July 28, 1969, a connection running between West Germany’s D\u00fcsseldorf and Leipzig in the former East Germany derailed about 40 kilometers from the inner-German border, killing four people.<\/p>\n

At the time, rails were built and fastened in a way that allowed the steel to expand in all directions at high temperatures.<\/p>\n

\"BentThe tracks between West Germany’s D\u00fcsseldorf and Leipzig in the former East Germany bent in July 1967 and the resulting accident killed four peopleImage: Wolfgang Weihs\/dpa\/picture alliance<\/p>\n

Nowadays, rail tracks can only expand up and down. In Italy, tracks are even painted white on their sides so that they absorb less heat from sunlight than conventional rail tracks, which develop a rust-brown color over the years.<\/p>\n

According to Deutsche Bahn, temperatures of up to 60 degrees Celsius (140 Fahrenheit) pose no problem for the rails themselves. Only\u00a0flexible parts such as switches must be cooled and as part of the “Climate-Resilient Railway Technology” program, components in signalling technology are also to be made more resistant to the increasing periods of heat.<\/p>\n

Heat is also a problem for the train<\/a> and its passengers. Engines can overheat, and air conditioning systems can be pushed to their limits.<\/p>\n

The latest generation of ICE 4 express trains has\u00a0two independent air conditioning systems in each car\u00a0to keep the passenger compartment climate-controlled. They are designed to work just as well in outside temperatures of -25 degrees as they do on hot days of +45 degrees.<\/p>\n

Multiple dead in train crash in southern Germany

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/video><\/p>\n

This article was originally published in German.<\/p>\n

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