Deutsche Bahn announces five-year infrastructure spending plan worth 28 billion euros

Deutsche Bahn announced a €28bn five-year spending plan for 2015-19 on December 8. It is the the biggest modernisation programme in the history of the network.

The announcement follows federal government approval of the LuFV II agreement, which sets out state and DB funding for the network over the next five years. Under LuFV II the government has allocated an average of more than €3·3bn annually, and all state dividends from DB’s infrastructure activities are to be reinvested in the network.

The five-year programme includes €12bn for renewing 17 000 km of track, and €3bn for the renewal of 875 bridges. Around €4bn is allocated for signalling and control systems and €1bn for tunnel modernisation.

Spending in 2015 is put at €5·3bn, including the renewal of 3 800 km of track, 2 000 turnouts, 2·5 million sleepers, 4 million tonnes of ballast and 125 bridges. In an effort to minimise closures, the works will be grouped into 500 projects on and undertaken on 80 specific corridors.