GERMANY: The Mayor of Mannheim officially reopened the city’s main marshalling yard on February 27, following a €100m project to increase throughput by up to 20% and cut maintenance costs.As well as renewal of the 170 km of track and 550 turnouts, modernisation has included full automation including remote-controlled locomotives. Improvements to efficiency mean the yard can now handle 150 wagons/h. The federal government provided €65m for the project. ‘The Mannheim marshalling yard is one of the largest in Germany and one of the most important in Europe’, said Hansjörg Hess, Production Director at DB Netz AG. ‘Our investments create improvements for our customers. We speed up the process, thus expanding capacity for more traffic on the rail.’ More...
