Expansion of the Rhine Valley Railway: Nature conservation organizations have concerns

Created: 2022-08-09 2:43 p.m

Rhine Valley Railway.

© Uli Deck/dpa

Environmentalists in the southwest have expressed serious concerns about the planned expansion of the freight railway line in the Rhine Valley.

Since the A5 Karlsruhe - Basel motorway largely runs parallel to the railway line, there is an insurmountable obstacle for wild animals and certain species of bats.

This was explained by the chairman of the Baden-Württemberg State Nature Conservation Association (LNV), Gerhard Bronner, on Tuesday in Stuttgart.

Offenburg/Stuttgart – According to their own statements, the LNV, the Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland (BUND) and the Naturschutzbund (Nabu) asked the Federal Railway Authority not to approve the plans for the sections between Offenburg (Ortenaukreis) and south of Freiburg.

The planned underpasses and overpasses for animals are insufficient.

A spokeswoman for Deutsche Bahn said on request that environmental protection is a very important issue for the transport company - "accordingly, we always keep an eye on the interests of our projects".

However, the railway cannot comment on specific questions from the so-called plan approval documents, as it is about ongoing procedures.

The documents will therefore be checked by the Freiburg Regional Council.

The Federal Railway Authority is responsible as the approval authority, according to the railway.

The Rhine Valley Railway is a main connection between the North Sea ports and Italy.

On August 12, 2017, there was an accident in the tunnel during the construction of the crossing under the existing Rhine Valley Railway near Rastatt.

The tracks above sagged and traffic stood still for weeks.

In order to limit the damage, workers pumped large amounts of concrete over a length of 160 meters into the tube in which the tunnel boring machine was still stuck.

dpa