Rail traffic: Transport Committee votes for new line between Hanover and Hamburg

The route is one of the most important transport axes in Germany - but the plans have so far been controversial. But it could still be decades before the first trains run.

Berlin. After a long struggle, the course was set for a new route in the Bundestag for the nationally important railway line between Hanover and Hamburg. The Transport Committee voted in favor of a corresponding proposal, as the German Press Agency learned from participants. This means that the railway can continue to plan the new route.

The Transport Committee also voted for a draft resolution that also provides for significant improvements to the existing route. The entire Bundestag is scheduled to address the project late on Thursday evening. The approval is considered a formality, as the coalition said.

The Hanover-Hamburg route is one of the most important transport axes in Germany. The existing route is heavily used. “We are ending the years-long standstill between Hamburg and Hanover and are finally bringing together new construction and improvements on the existing route,” said Isabel Cademartori, transport policy spokeswoman for the SPD parliamentary group.

“The new building creates urgently needed capacity for passenger and freight transport, while at the same time we are investing around 250 million euros in the existing route by 2034 at the latest.” This included more noise protection, operational improvements and the chance of new regional stops along the new route.

CDU MP Christoph Ploß said: “The new line is a central component in creating additional capacity and permanently resolving the existing bottlenecks between Hamburg and Hanover.”

New construction route controversial

Two weeks ago, the black-red coalition in the federal government postponed a decision on the new line. According to reports, Lower Saxony MPs had pushed for quick improvements to the existing route. A new line has been discussed for many years. The project is controversial in Lower Saxony.

In a briefing from the Ministry of Transport to the committee it is stated that the federal government recommends confirming the so-called preferred variant of the rail infrastructure division DB InfraGO as the basis for further planning.

The report on the results of the “preliminary planning” states that a new line will serve to resolve a central bottleneck in the German rail network. The so-called preferred variant is therefore planned to be a new double-track construction between Hanover-Vinnhorst and Hamburg-Meckelfeld with a route length of 109 kilometers.

After the confirmation of the so-called preliminary planning by the rail infrastructure division InfraGo for a new line by the Bundestag, the further so-called performance phases follow. It could be decades before the first trains run over the new route. In the briefing to the committee, the date for commissioning is set as 2050.