German national railway Deutsche Bahn plans to renew 2,000 kilometres of track and 2,000 points this year as part of an effort to update the country's ageing rail infrastructure.
Total investments in rail infrastructure by Deutsche Bahn as well as Germany's national and local governments will total around €16.4 billion ($17.5 billion) in 2024 alone, the state-owned railway announced on Monday.
Germany's rail network is considered dilapidated and overloaded, with disruptions, repairs and construction work along major routes contributing to chronic punctuality issues for the railway.
The most recent annual network status report from 2022 estimates the "age-based backlog demand" at €103.4 billion, with needed work on bridges making up more than half of that, €59.9 billion.
The most important rail construction project this year will be the general refurbishment of the Riedbahn rail corridor between Frankfurt and Mannheim.
The line, a major north-south transport corridor for western Germany, is scheduled to be completely closed for five months.
The closure is the first of 40 planned general refurbishments in the coming years that will temporarily shut down significant pieces of the network for extensive work.