In the Spotlight with Deutsche Bahn’s Head of ETCS: Insights into the €30B ETCS/ERTMS Migration Strategy

Located in the heart of Europe Germany forms a central node in the European railway network with borders to many countries. There are 6 ETCS corridors crossing Germany, thus Germany forms the hub in rail traffic for people and goods and plays an important role for the deployment of ERTMS in Europe.

In 2018 Deutsche Bahn introduced their ambitious digital rail programme Digitale Schiene Deutschland, (Digital Rail Germany) which aims to increase rail capacity by 20%, remove traditional signals and operate over 80% of the 33,500-kilometre-long network digitally.

Ahead of the Train Control Management Systems Summit 2020 we spoke to Joern Schlichting, Head of ETCS Programme at Deutsche Bahn. Joern explores the European ERTMS migration strategy and delves into how digitalisation will increase capacity, save costs, help overcome demographic workforce challenges and maintain the railway network’s competitiveness in the longer term.