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Train loaded with coal near Leipzig: keep refineries and power plants running
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Peter Endig / dpa
To ensure that coal, oil and other means of production reach the power plants and refineries quickly enough in an emergency, they are given priority in the German railway network.
The federal cabinet passed a corresponding ordinance according to which "transport of energy sources by rail and the rail-bound transport of large transformers" are given priority when using the rail network.
This was announced jointly by the Ministries of Transport and Economy.
"When in doubt, this can also mean that passenger trains have to wait," said Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing after the cabinet meeting.
If, according to the FDP politician, additional transports in the energy sector are required at short notice, priority must be given.
In addition, transport on some waterways is currently restricted due to the low water levels.
According to the information, the prerequisite for prioritization is the "endangerment of the safe and reliable operation of the electricity supply" or "the operation of refineries and the mineral oil supply".
Higher noise pollution from old freight trains
The priority for energy transport, for example to supply coal-fired power plants, is laid down in a statutory ordinance.
The aim is to ensure the operation of power plants, refineries and power grids and thus the energy supply - despite the lack of gas supplies from Russia.
Increasingly, coal-fired power plants are to be reconnected to the grid from the reserve for power supply.
At the beginning of August, a coal-fired power plant in Lower Saxony that had actually been shut down had resumed operation.
In any case, the hard coal required for this has to be transported over long distances, because the mining of domestic hard coal ended in December 2018 in the Ruhr area.
According to the ministries, rail transport for the energy sector should have priority “within a clearly defined energy corridor network”.
The ordinance contains a ten-page list of the relevant train paths.
“Interventions in rail transport should be kept as low as possible in order to be able to continue to transport other types of goods as required and to avoid failures or delays in passenger transport as far as possible,” write the ministries.
Residents living near railway lines are also threatened with higher noise pollution: "In order to ensure a stable energy supply and due to existing capacity bottlenecks with rolling stock, it may also be necessary to use freight wagons that no longer meet the applicable noise protection standards," the ministries said.
"The provisions of the Rail Noise Protection Act are therefore excluded from application in this special exceptional case."
apr/mamk/AFP/dpa