Railway reactivation in Lower Saxony: Hope despite setbacks!

The reactivation of the Friesoythe-Cloppenburg and Meppen-Essen railway lines stalls. The Lower Saxony Ministry of Transport has announced that these routes are not considered economically sensible. The results were communicated after a meeting of the parliamentary steering group, in which Transport Minister Olaf Lies also expressed positive progress in the reactivation examination. However, a final decision on the routes in question is still pending.

The district of Cloppenburg is surprised by the country's evaluation, since it has determined a benefit-cost ratio of less than 1.0. Those responsible in the district expect better results based on their own analyzes, which ended for the Cloppenburg-Friesoythe routes with 4.18 and for Meppen-Essen with 4.23. There are further challenges in the quantified inadequacy of financial resources for reactivation. Nevertheless, the district is planning to continue to reactivate these routes, while freight transport on the Friesoythe-Cloppenburg route is about to resume, such as nwzonline.de reported.

Initiatives for train reactivation in Lower Saxony

The decline in the number of users and the triumphal march of the automobile in Lower Saxony led to many regional trains. Nevertheless, a trend reversal in rail passenger traffic (SPNV) has used. The state parliament and the state government in Hanover are working on a comprehensive railway reactivation program. A parliamentary steering group checks the reactivation of a total of 21 rail connections in the state.

Economic and Transport Minister Olaf Lies emphasizes the need to strengthen the rail and infrastructure. Lower Saxony's reactivation initiative, which has existed since 2013, has already had successes, such as the reactivations of Einbeck-Mitte to Einbeck-Salzderhelden in 2018 and from Bad Bentheim to Neuenhaus in 2019. There are further reactivations, including the connections Neuenhaus-Coorden and Lüneburg-Soltau, accompanying the existing developments, such as roundblick-niedersachsen.de reported.