Getting Deutsche Bahn Back On Track After Floods

North of the city of Dresden, one of the regions hardest hit by last week’s devastating flood waters, people are bracing themselves for the surging waters of the river Elbe, which are slowly moving upstream.

Further south, in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Brandenburg, repair work has begun. In Berlin, the German government has put the cost of repair damage at some 15 billion euro. But in wide areas of German infrastructure the exact costs are still largely unknown.

According to Deutsche Bahn spokesman Achim Stauss, “It will take weeks before the exact dimension of the damage done is known”. But what is clear is that repairs will cost billions -- with the only question being whether they will be in the single or double digits.

Germany’s rail network has been particularly hard hit by the recent floods, which destroyed the livelihoods of millions of central Europeans last week. Rail lines, roads and bridges were simply washed away in the surging torrents. And as the swollen waters of the river Elbe continue to rise farther up north, so too could the costs of damage to Germany’s national rail network, according to another Deutsche Bahn spokesman, Hans-Georg Kusznir.

Deutsche Bahn has now organised a crisis centre in Dresden to estimate the precise scope of the damage.

According to Stauss, “the worst damage has been done in Saxony.” Dresden, at the heart of Saxony, is a crucial link in the central German railway network. “Our main aim is to repair the main rail lines, in order to get the central German region back on track”, the company said in a statement.

The company's highest priority is to repair the Dresden-Leipzig-Chemnitz connection, a heavily frequented line in a highly industrial region in Germany’s east.

Financing still unclear

“Details on the financing of this work will have to be solved later”, Kusznir said. However, funds for immediate repair have already been made available. “For the year 2002 the Bahn has around 2.5 billion euro for investments in the current network,” he said. Deutsche Bahn will make the flooded regions a priority in the distribution of these funds, he said.

Fears that planned projects, such as the modernisation of Dresden’s 100-year-old station, will be neglected due to flood repairs, have been denied by Deutsche Bahn. But some projects will inevitably have to be postponed.

Additionally, the German government has promised to help Deutsche Bahn where it can. “We will help the company”, Transport Minister Kurt Bodewig, a Social Democrat, pledged on Tuesday. The government has already planned a record sum for the rail company in this year’s budget. Bodewig said one billion euro had been designated for the Bahn both this and next year.

Years to repair

Total repair is expected to take at least until 2003. And Deutsche Bahn expects there will be additional damage to further regions, as the river Elbe makes its way up north. In addition, in areas where the water is already retreating, “numerous railways and stations are still overflooded”, according to Achim Stauss.

In Dresden, some of the first regional trains have started arriving and departing from the city’s main station, which had been cut off from service for days.

For those tracks cut off by flood waters, Deutsche Bahn has set up a network of replacement buses. But even here, there are daily difficulties. “Many of the roads are still overflooded too”, Stauss says.

Currently, hundreds of Deutsche Bahn employees are helping out at the hot spots and working extra hours. According to Stauss, numerous trainees have taken on voluntary work, helping to clear up damaged rail tracks, in call centres or supervising stations.

But Stauss say the rail company’s employees face the same difficulties as other workers in the affected areas. “Some of them have difficulties getting to work,” he says.