GERMANY: A three-year €100m project to resignal the heavily-used S-Bahn tunnel under central Frankfurt was completed when the new electric interlocking was brought into use on August 6.
The 6 km tunnel between the Hauptbahnhof, Lokalbahnhof and Mühlberg stations is used by eight S-Bahn Rhein-Main routes and carries up to 24 trains/h in each direction.
The replacement of the 40-year old relay-based equipment on the route was undertaken by DB Netz, Siemens and Leonhard Weiss. The scope included installing 20 signals, modifying 48 existing signals and laying 70 km of cables, as well as removing 190 km of redundant cable and 100 obsolete signals.
The upgrade is intended to increase capacity and running speeds on the route, providing more resilience in the event of disruption and enabling the operation of more overnight services.
‘The S-Bahn is indispensable for many people’, said S-Bahn Rhein-Main director Christian Roth. ‘The new technology in the tunnel will help improve performance for our customers.’
The work forms part of the wider Frankfurt RheinMain Plus upgrading programme which is being undertaken by the city, Land of Hessen, transport authority RMV and DB.