ifo Dresden berichtet 4/2021

15,000 Kilometers Less Railways than 70 Years Ago in Germany - East and West Germany Equally Affected

Germany has dismantled more than 15,000 kilometers of railways in the past 70 years. That is almost three times the length of today's rail network in North Rhine-Westphalia. More than one in four kilometers of track has been decommissioned since 1955 - in both East and West Germany. However, the line closures took place at different times: in the west primarily during the "economic miracle" boom, in the east during the economically difficult phase after reunification. Reactivating closed lines that have not yet been decommissioned could help to bring rail connections back into the country more quickly.

Stefanie Gäbler, Manuela Krause and Felix Rösel