Saxon-Bavarian city network

The city leaders of the Saxon-Bavarian network of cities see a good chance that the plans for the electrification gap between Nuremberg - Marktredwitz - Czech Republic will be resumed. At their annual coordination conference in Bayreuth, the network cities have reason to be optimistic despite the negative assessment result of the benefit-cost study. The German government wants to accelerate the expansion of the railway infrastructure with a Modern Rail Act. An important element of this will be the abolition of the profitability calculation for electrification projects in order to achieve the climate targets.

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The results of the preliminary planning for the electrification of the Nuremberg - Marktredwitz section have been finalised for over a year. Since then, however, planning has stalled because the economic viability of the project has to be established through planning adjustments.

At their most recent meeting in Hof, the mayors of the Saxon-Bavarian network of cities urged the rapid continuation of planning. "In addition to cost savings, it is the increased benefits that will help with the economic viability. With a well-founded expert report, we were already able to show the old federal government that current developments in Germany and Europe are increasing the importance of this railway line above average," recalls Hof's Lord Mayor Eva Döhla. This applies above all to sectors that are increasingly dependent on CO2-reduced freight transport, such as the automotive and chemical industries.

"VW Sachsen doesn't transport electric cars from Zwickau to the south by rail - due to a lack of efficient transport options," adds Zwickau's Mayor Constance Arndt. "We urgently need to close the electric gap to Nuremberg in order to connect the industrial region of south-west Saxony directly with Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Switzerland and south-west Europe," argues Sven Schulze, Lord Mayor of Chemnitz. The Franconia-Saxony main line is receiving a strong tailwind from the coalition agreement of the new coalition government, where it is "one of the eight most urgent expansion routes in Germany", as Plauen's Lord Mayor Steffen Zenner notes.

Reference region for state-of-the-art rail transport

The mayors also see an urgent need for action in passenger transport. In north-east and eastern Bavaria, there is a threat of massive deterioration across a large area if express services no longer use tilting technology. The current diesel railcars will be decommissioned by 2032 at the latest. "Then we will need an electric tilting technology hybrid vehicle that draws its power from the overhead wire and batteries," says Bayreuth's Lord Mayor Thomas Ebersberger.

As the electrification of the Franconia-Saxony main line will probably not be completed by 2032 and other routes such as the Upper Franconia axis will remain without overhead contact wire for the time being, a tilting technology hybrid vehicle is the long-term solution for the winding low mountain routes. The industry has been ready for development since 2018; the only thing missing is an order from the Free State of Bavaria. "This must happen soon. Otherwise there won't be enough time for development and testing," warns Mayor Oliver Weigel from Marktredwitz.

The mayors are particularly sensitised to this point. The newly developed ICE TD for the Franconia-Saxony main line was put on track several years late in 2001 - with plenty of teething troubles. "To prevent this from happening again, we are appealing to the Free State of Bavaria to order tilting technology hybrid vehicles in good time. Then north-east Bavaria can once again become the reference region for state-of-the-art rail transport on secondary main lines, as it was once before with the introduction of tilting technology in 1992. We are ready to immediately concretise this future concept for rail transport with the Free State of Bavaria," emphasise the Upper Franconian mayors Eva Döhla, Thomas Ebersberger and Oliver Weigel.

In 1995, the cities of Chemnitz, Zwickau, Plauen, Hof and Bayreuth joined forces across the borders of Bavaria and Saxony to form the Saxon-Bavarian network of cities.

The five municipalities in the city network focus their co-operation on improving rail connections and on the areas of tourism and culture. In the railway sector, the network of towns cooperates with the town of Marktredwitz.

The city network partners see their voluntary co-operation as a suitable approach to meeting the challenges of our time by developing joint strategies.