German main line closes for seven year rebuild
Key rail link between Denmark and Germany to be modernised by 2030.
THE main line from Hamburg to Puttgarden, used by international services via train ferries to Denmark until December 2019, closed north of Haffkrug near Lübeck on August 31.
The line will re-open largely on new alignments avoiding major towns as a double track electrified line in 2029.
The rebuild project, which will see 55km (34 miles) of new alignments on a line only 88km (55 miles) long, is the main German contribution to the new Fehmarn fixed link which is being built in a tunnel under the sea between Rødby in Denmark and Puttgarden in Germany.
The new 18km (11 miles) undersea link will be used by regular Hamburg to Copenhagen passenger services, plus rail freight between Scandinavia and Western Europe which currently takes the longer ‘Great Belt’ route across Denmark.
The new tunnels are being built by sinking prefabricated 217-metre long concrete tunnel sections, each weighing 73,500 tonnes into a trench dug on the seabed. The new tunnel will accommodate a double track electrified railway and a dual carriageway road in separate sections.
The new line has been very controversial in Germany, as coastal resort towns will lose their centrally located stations, and despite the old line closing north of Haffkrug, planning permission for the planned new line has not been fully obtained.
Much of the new line follows the A1 Autobahn that will also link into the road in the new fixed link. To mark the end of services on the old line, which includes the iconic 1963 built Fehmarnsundbrücke /Fehmarn Sound Bridge, several special trains ran.
This bridge has now lost its railway use; it will be replaced by a new 1.7km tunnel nearby but will be retained as a road bridge for bicycles, pedestrians and local farmers.