Instead of the end-to-end electrification of a track, the new technology only requires the electrification of short sections of track or a station. Climate-friendly battery trains will be used alongside.
These trains can use the piece of overhead line, which is only a few hundred meters to a few kilometers, to charge their batteries for non-electrified journeys.
In the future, more than ten million kilometers of train traffic can be driven electrically in Schleswig-Holstein. The diesel trains used up until now will be phased out. This saves almost ten million liters of diesel fuel per year.
DB Infrastructure board member Ronald Pofalla, said, “DB is driving the climate change on the rails further. We say goodbye to diesel step by step and drive forward innovative infrastructure solutions as well as alternative drives and fuels. Overhead contact islands open new possibilities for more climate-friendly electrified rail traffic throughout Germany.”
Schleswig-Holstein’s transport minister Dr Bernd Buchholz, added, “With the construction of three overhead contact line islands here in the state, we are not only demonstrating the innovative strength of Schleswig-Holstein again, but also underscoring that we are serious about climate protection. I am pleased that DB is working with us to build the necessary infrastructure and is taking innovative approaches here. The schedule is ambitious, but I’m sure that we can do it and then be able to run the first battery-powered trains by the end of this year.”
Construction work in Schleswig-Holstein is scheduled to begin in Autumn 2022. In the first step, DB is electrifying additional tracks in the stations of Kiel, Bad Oldesloe and Büchen, thus enabling the first nationwide traffic of battery-powered trains in regular use as early as 2022.
In the second step, the existing overhead lines on the Flensburg route in the direction of Kiel and between Kiel and Kiel Hassee will be expanded in 2023. DB will then set up the first overhead contact line islands and charging substations for feeding in the traction current on behalf of the state and the local transport company on the west coast of Schleswig-Holstein in Heide, Husum and Tönning. From the timetable change in 2023, the battery-powered trains can also operate there.
In two other federal states, overhead contact line islands are also to be used in local transport. In southern Rhineland-Palatinate, the preliminary planning has already been completed and preliminary planning has begun in the Rhine-Ruhr region.