Erfurt railway hub

Its location in the heart of central Europe makes the Erfurt rail junction an important part of both the European infrastructure master plan and the European high-speed network. The VDE 8 high-speed rail line serves both passenger and freight traffic. As the easternmost north-south axis in Germany, it is integrated in the future trans-European transport network (TEN Project No. 1 from Palermo to Berlin, which continues northwards as far as Sweden).

Erfurt is an important rail hub domestically as well as internationally. The work on the Erfurt rail junction will link up the new sections of the VDE 8 (German Unity Transport Projects) line that runs from Nuremberg via Erfurt to Leipzig, Halle and Berlin. The lines from Frankfurt/Main and the Ruhr and from Dresden and Gera/Chemnitz also run through Erfurt. In addition, there are numerous regional connections.

Facts and figures

• Line length: 7 km
• Maximum speed: 100 bis 160 km/h
• New construction/refurbishment of civil engineering structures: 8
• New construction/refurbishment of stations: 1
• Removal of railway bridges: none

The Erfurt rail junction

The existing track plan is being fundamentally changed in order to integrate the new VDE 8.1/8.2 sections of line at the Erfurt rail junction. Since the track geometry did not allow changes of the planned magnitude to be made while preserving the original structures, it was necessary to build new bridges. At the same time, the supporting structures had to be replaced in a number of cases.

Part of this construction work was carried out starting in 2005 and is already completed.

Facts and figures

• Puschkinstrasse railway bridge:   29 m
• Flutgraben II railway bridge:   39 m
• Loeberstrasse railway bridge:   15,85 m
• Bahnhofstrasse railway bridge:   20,30 m
• Schmidtstedter Strasse railway bridge:
  • Street:     12,50 m
  • Flutgraben I:    27,65 m
• Azmannsdorfer Weg railway bridge:  39m
• Overpass:   102 m

More Information: DB Netz AG