Germany's secret to high-speed rail

Germany is researching and developing high-speed rail technology in both infrastructure and vehicles with the goal of being "half as fast as an airplane, twice as fast as a car".

Priority is given to passenger transport, freight transport is arranged at night. Talking about the world-famous high-speed railway lines, it is impossible not to mention the famous brand InterCity Express - Inter-city Express (ICE) of Germany. The ICE system officially came into operation in 1991, with the aim of improving long-distance transport and connections between major economic centers of Germany. In addition, this system not only serves domestic destinations but also expands to neighboring countries, including Austria, France, Belgium, Switzerland and the Netherlands in cross-border services.

German high-speed train (Photo: Internet).

According to Giao thong Newspaper, after World War II severely damaged the German railway system, the Government of this country built a plan to comprehensively develop the transport system including railways. Accordingly, the country known as the "heart of Europe" planned 2,225km of high-speed rail (HSR) with a speed of 300 km/h and developed an additional 1,250km of lines reaching a speed of 200 km/h. The investment goal of HSR trains is "half as fast as an airplane, twice as fast as a car". In June 1991, the German HSR (ICE) began operating. The first routes selected in Germany were the Hanover - Wurzburg and Mannheim - Stuttgart routes. These are all mixed routes combining passenger and freight transport, unlike the HSRs of Japan and France which focus on passenger-only services. Germany's rail network expanded rapidly with the addition of the Wolfsburg-Berlin line in 1998 (the East-West line). This was seen as a symbol of the political unification of West Germany and East Germany, connecting the new political capital Berlin with cities in the west of the country. This was followed by the Cologne-Frankfurt line in 2002, and the Nuremberg-Munich line in 2006.

According to the High Speed ​​Rail Atlas ("Atlas High Speed ​​Rail", 2023) of the International Railway Union (UIC), Germany currently has 14 operating lines, with a total length of 1,631km, and a maximum speed of 230-300km/h. Germany is constructing 87km and planning 81km, bringing the total number of kilometers to 1,799km. Regarding the maximum operating speed, there are 2 lines above 200km/h, with a length of 369km, accounting for 23% of the total length of the high-speed railway; above 250km/h, there are 07 lines, with a length of 739km, accounting for 47%; above 300km/h, there are 4 lines, with a length of 463km, accounting for 30%. Thus, the main trend of Germany's high-speed railway is an operating speed of over 250km/h, accounting for 77%.

To date, Germany has a 1,631km high-speed rail network, with 14 operating lines. With a dense existing railway density (93km/1,000km2). Of which, there are 6 main lines running along the North-South axis and 3 lines running along the East-West axis. The route most used by ICE is the Mannheim - Frankfurt route, due to the convergence of many ICE lines in this area. When calculating the traffic volume including freight trains, local trains and long-distance passenger trains, the busiest route is Munich - Augsburg with about 300 trains per day. It must be said that Germany is one of the pioneering countries in developing high-speed rail networks in the world. However, Germany's railway development strategy is to prioritize optimizing train schedules on routes and reducing passenger waiting time at stations instead of increasing train speed. Therefore, the main routes are formed on the basis of upgrading the existing 1,435mm gauge railway network to operate both passengers and freight with an average speed of 160km/h for passenger trains and 100km/h for freight trains. Priority is given to passenger transport, freight transport is arranged at night or during non-peak hours. Only the Cologne - Frankfurt route, about 180km long, has a large passenger demand, so it runs separate passenger trains with a maximum speed of 300km/h. Regarding passenger transport, the ICE system targets businessmen and long-distance travelers, and is promoted by the German National Railways (DB) as an alternative to flights to the same destination. Authorities at all levels are responsible for infrastructure investment. Regarding the investment model, for infrastructure, in Germany, investment is mainly in the form of public investment, including capital allocated from the federal budget, local budgets, support from the European Commission (for European intermodal railway routes), and capital contributed by the German National Railway Group (DB). Projects must be assessed in terms of macroeconomics, then included in the master plan for railway infrastructure for research and implementation. For example, the Nuremberg - Ingolstadt line was built in 2006, in which the federal government is responsible for 58%, DB contributes 32%, regional authorities 5% and the European Commission 5%. The German government has also built legal frameworks for investment under the PPP method, but so far it has not been applied to railway projects. Regarding investment in locomotives and wagons, transport enterprises invest and operate from their own capital.

Map of high-speed rail network in Germany (Source: UIC).

According to German regulations: The federal government is responsible for providing investment capital for federal railway infrastructure such as upgrading and new construction, excluding locomotives and carriages; responsible for building the legal framework, complying with the European legal framework, and the organizational structure of the German National Railways Group (DB). The state governments (16 states) are responsible for organizing investment, local and regional railway passenger transport (outside the railway network managed by DB; applying the principle of decentralization, investment funding of the federal government. There are two agencies supervising the operation of German railways, including: The Federal Railway Network Authority (BnetzA) is responsible for issuing regulations, supervising, ensuring non-discriminatory access between private transport companies and DB companies; checking information published on the railway network and services; reviewing the quantity and structure of infrastructure usage fees. The Federal Rail Transport Authority (EBA) is under the Ministry of Transport, responsible for monitoring capacity conditions, granting business licenses to transport companies, companies investing in locomotives and wagons. The German National Railway Group (DB) operates under the model of a 100% state-owned parent company. DB is responsible for the management, maintenance, and operation of national railway infrastructure assets and transport business. Currently, DB directly manages the second largest railway network in Europe with a total length of 33,000 km of 1435 mm standard gauge. Similar to other railway operators, DB must pay a fee for operating the German railway infrastructure. DB uses state capital, revenues from leasing railway infrastructure, commercial exploitation of stations and other related revenues for maintenance and investment. According to DB, the group receives about 8.5 billion Euros from the Government budget in the period from 2019 to 2023, for infrastructure projects, of which a significant part is for the ICE high-speed railway. In 2020, Germany announced a plan to invest 86 billion Euros in railway infrastructure over the next 10 years (2020-2030), with the majority of that going towards upgrading and maintaining HSR lines. Revenue from operating stations, freight yards, warehouses, shopping malls, services, etc. accounts for a significant proportion of DB's total revenue, which will be reinvested to improve the quality of transport services, increase revenue from transport and support services.

High-speed railway station (Photo: Internet).

In addition to commercial exploitation at the station area, HSR also contributes to promoting economic development in the areas along the railway line. The HSR system has changed the way large cities and rural areas are connected. Areas that are far from economic centers are now more easily connected, attracting investment and high-quality human resources to these areas. Areas near ICE stations often witness significant growth in real estate values ​​and commercial infrastructure. For example, in the city of Kassel, according to a report by the German Real Estate Research Institute (IVD), since the ICE line was extended to Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe, real estate prices here have increased by an average of 10-20% per year in the first 5 years after the ICE station was put into operation. The regional economy has also grown strongly, with many businesses choosing to locate their headquarters or branch offices here due to the quick connection to major centers such as Frankfurt, Hamburg and Berlin.

Germany is among the countries with original technology that have researched and developed high-speed railways themselves. All of Germany's high-speed railway lines have a gauge of 1,435mm and are electrified using 15 kV AC, 16.7 Hz power. Germany's high-speed railway technology mainly comes from Siemens and has been exported to many European countries. Train technology includes two types: Centralized propulsion technology for old generations of trains with operating speeds of 200-280km/h; EMU distributed propulsion technology for new generations of trains with operating speeds of 250-300km/h. Currently, Siemens tends to convert train technology to EMU distributed propulsion instead of the previous centralized propulsion technology.

Source: https://www.baogiaothong.vn/bi-quyet-lam-duong-sat-cao-toc-cua-duc-192241106003817238.htm