Deutsche Bahn: Stop digitization? “The opposite is true” | EUROtoday

You can inform that Daniela Gerd tom Markotten feels she has been handled unfairly. The digital director of Deutsche Bahn has needed to cope with headlines for days that the digitization of the railway infrastructure is being halted. “I was annoyed by the reporting of the past few days because it is true that we at Deutsche Bahn have never invested as much in digitization and IT as we are now,” says Gerd tom Markotten on the sidelines of the WELT AI Summit in Berlin.

Digitalization is being pushed ahead greater than ever all through the whole group. “There can be no talk of a halt to digitalization – the opposite is true,” says Gerd tom Markotten. “One example: just recently, the Group Executive Board approved a three-digit million amount for the digitalization of our maintenance facilities.”

But the state of affairs isn’t as clear as these statements may appear at first look. The report by Südwestdeutscher Rundfunk (SWR), which so angered the board member, doesn’t consult with the whole digitization of the state-owned firm, however to the infrastructure.

And there’s a nice want for this: many sign packing containers nonetheless use analogue expertise that appears historic, and the rail traces themselves are literally speculated to be geared up with a brand new European management expertise, the European Train Control System (ETCS), for a digital future. ETCS permits trains to speak routinely with the route, so they’re now not depending on standard signalling expertise and might run at shorter intervals. This ought to considerably improve the capability of the prevailing routes.

But this requires giant investments in a number of areas: the routes and all trains that can run on them should be geared up with the suitable expertise. According to the SWR report, the railway might now depend on cheaper expertise from the Nineteen Nineties to save lots of prices.

The firm at the moment has to renovate its dilapidated community, which is able to price billions – even with out the digital management expertise. The railway desires to renovate a complete of 41 so-called high-performance corridors, that are notably busy, by 2030. Work is at the moment underway on the Riedbahn between Frankfurt and Mannheim.

The federal authorities has not promised sufficient cash to the railway

“We are receiving more money from the federal government for the federal railways than ever before, but we also have a mammoth task ahead of us: to renovate the dilapidated infrastructure,” says the DB board member. “We have to concentrate on what is necessary. We will tackle the areas where we can achieve the greatest possible impact first.”

From this sentence you may definitely hear that there could also be issues which might be at the moment much more vital for the railway than digitization. First of all, the dilapidated routes need to be renovated, switches and indicators need to be introduced again into form. “We are renewing main lines, branch lines, signal boxes and are also implementing many small measures,” says Gerd tom Markotten. “Overall, we still want to continue to pursue our digitization roadmap, the topic will continue to be a high priority.”

But it is usually clear that the federal authorities has not but pledged sufficient cash. The renovation of the high-performance corridors is just assured till 2027, after which a brand new federal authorities should first present further cash in new finances negotiations. At least the Riedbahn is to be made match for ETCS. “All high-performance corridors that we are renovating from the ground up by 2027 will be equipped with ETCS as planned or made ready for ETCS,” says the digital board member.

Negotiations are additionally ongoing in regards to the financing of different routes. The supervisory board assembly subsequent week can be stated to be in regards to the so-called Stuttgart Digital Hub. The venture is a part of Stuttgart 21, the group's main venture, which is taking longer and turning into dearer anyway. The query now’s whether or not the so-called third stage of this system will truly be constructed, which is definitely meant to digitize one other 300 kilometers of route.

“We want to reduce the trains’ susceptibility to disruption”

“Digitization will not be reduced, but rather rolled out further – on routes and in the hubs,” says Gerd tom Markotten. This applies to all parts, together with ETCS. “ETCS is currently being installed between Karlsruhe and Basel, for example. But we are also relying on ETCS in connection with the general renovations such as on the Riedbahn between Frankfurt and Mannheim and between Berlin and Hamburg, as well as in the Stuttgart hub,” says the supervisor. Whether the supervisory board can even approve the third enlargement stage of the Stuttgart 21 venture stays open.

Gerd tom Markotten desires to drive ahead the digitalization of the railway not solely on the monitor, but additionally depends on enhancements in lots of different areas by means of trendy expertise resembling synthetic intelligence (AI). “We want to reduce the susceptibility not only of the infrastructure, but also of the trains,” she says. “For example, we now have 14 camera gates in our factories, through which the trains drive and the outer skin is analyzed using AI.” The AI ​​additionally helps “to recognize patterns and thus know in advance when certain parts of the trains need to be repaired or replaced.”

AI can be already getting used within the upkeep of the routes. “We used to have to drive the routes relatively slowly with the so-called yellow fleet and take measurements,” says the board member. This can now be accomplished with common ICE trains. “The sensors are not quite as accurate, but thanks to many measurement runs every day, we have so much data that we can predict much more accurately where problems will arise.”

Philipp Vetter is a enterprise correspondent in Berlin. He experiences on the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs, Economic coverage, Energy coverage, Transport coverage, mobility and the Deutsche BahnYou can subscribe to his unique WELTplus e-newsletter subscribe right here. Since 2021 he has been co-host of the WELT podcast “Everything on shares“.