After three weeks of closure between Rastatt and Baden-Baden, trains will be running again on one of the most important north-south connections, the Rhine Valley Railway, from Friday evening. This was announced by a spokeswoman for Deutsche Bahn (DB). According to the timetable, long-distance traffic and some regional trains will be running continuously again from Friday evening. Passengers on regional services must also expect restrictions in September. Information on this can be found in the travel information on www.bahn.de and in the DB Navigator app. Deutsche Bahn also recommends that passengers allow more time for their journeys and, if necessary, choose an earlier connection.
Since August 9, the railway has been working on the southern connection to the Rastatt tunnel as part of the Karlsruhe-Basel railway project. This construction work is progressing steadily, the spokeswoman said. “The DB completed the necessary adjustments to the track construction on time last week, and the current overhead line work is also going well.” In the last few days of the closure, technically demanding work on the control and safety technology is still pending. The railway successfully completed a software change in the Baden-Baden signal box last weekend. Freight traffic can also travel on the Rhine Valley Railway again after the closure, it will only be diverted in isolated cases.
Further restrictions in regional transport
Until 5 a.m. on September 9, the railway will continue to work on structures in Durmersheim and Rastatt as well as signal boxes and switches in Rastatt and Baden-Baden. On the RE 2 and RE 7 lines, passengers must therefore expect timetable changes such as stops and train cancellations and temporary replacement services between Karlsruhe and Offenburg. Trains on the RE 40, RB 41 and RB 44 lines will be replaced by buses from Karlsruhe main station to at least Rastatt. On Sunday, September 8, all regional trains between Rastatt and Baden-Baden will be cancelled all day, according to the spokeswoman. Buses will run instead.
Even after that, there will be several restrictions, cancellations and partial cancellations on S-Bahn lines 7 and 8 until September 21, as the Karlsruhe transport company informed. Passengers are asked to pay attention to the information notices at the stops. Information is also available at avg.info/fahrplan/fahrplanauskunft online.
Construction work will continue for years
There were problems with the replacement services, especially at the beginning of the closure. There were not enough buses, and passengers complained, among other things, about inadequate signage for the routes to the rail replacement services. The freight railways also voiced criticism that the planned diversion via France was not working as planned. According to the railway, however, congestion on the route in freight traffic was quickly cleared.
The route, which is over 170 years old, is used to transport goods between the North Sea ports, important western German industrial regions, Switzerland and northern Italy. According to the railway, more than 300 local, long-distance and freight trains use it every day.
“That’s too much for the route,” says the railway. That’s why it is building two additional tracks to avoid delays caused by slow-moving trains. Long-distance trains will then be able to travel at up to 250 kilometers per hour. “This will reduce the travel time between Karlsruhe and Basel by around half an hour to just around 70 minutes.” The four continuous tracks are to be completed in 2035, but the billion-dollar expansion of the Rhine Valley Railway as a whole will not be completed until 2041.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:240830-930-217273/1
