Deutsche Bahn plans to change the closure of the RE1 route from 2029

Deutsche Bahn wants to shorten the closure of the RE1 route from Berlin to Frankfurt (Oder) slightly for renovation from 2029 and spread it over two years. The railway announced this in the transport committee of the Brandenburg state parliament. In the concept, the work is concentrated east of Fürstenwalde/Spree, so local transport is possible west of Fürstenwalde. The originally planned nine-month lockdown was met with criticism.

Brandenburg's Transport Minister Robert Crumbach (SPD) was not yet entirely satisfied with the new plans. “Although this may avoid a single, very long closure, the traffic restrictions on the east branch of RE1 would be significant for many years,” he said. “From the state’s perspective, this is not yet a sustainable relief for passengers.” He made this clear in a letter to Deutsche Bahn in August.

Local transport between Berlin and Fürstenwalde

The railway wants to share the closure. “The division into two times four months of total closure does not apply to the entire route, as was originally planned,” said Deutsche Bahn’s representative for Berlin, Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Alexander Kaczmarek. “With this solution, we can actually ensure that local transport between Berlin and Fürstenwalde can run largely undisturbed in 2029.” In 2030, this will apply in the second construction phase from March to May and in June up to the catch lock.

The rail manager said there is a commitment to set up the European train control system ETCS on this important international Berlin-Frankfurt/Oder connection by 2030. “ETCS actually means setting up a completely new control and safety system for a route like this - and of course you can’t do that under a rolling wheel.”

The overhead lines will be renovated later

Deutsche Bahn decided against several alternatives. One variant would have meant 11.5 months of closure in 2029 - almost a year. The railway subsidiary DB InfraGo rejected this because of the bottleneck. In another variant, the closure would have lasted 23.5 months - almost two years - but would have been single-track. The railway company ODEG rejected this because of the duration. Another variant would have been to close the route for nine months in two years, but the railway subsidiary pointed to staff shortages when renovating the signal box.

The renovation of the overhead lines is postponed. “There is simply far too little capacity on the market at the moment, and that is why we have removed these shares and then postponed them to years 33 and 35,” said the company representative.

The RE1 is an important commuter route, the route is also part of the train connection from Berlin to Warsaw. This year there was also a route closure for the RE1 regional express between Berlin and Frankfurt (Oder), which was extended.