Deutsche Bahn wants to eliminate a bottleneck in its rail network by laying additional tracks.

In the next few years, two more tracks are to be laid across the Niederrad district between the Frankfurt Stadion station and the Frankfurt main station - also across the Main, so that a third will now be built there in addition to the two existing, double-track railway bridges.

The goal is that long-distance and local trains can run independently of each other, i.e. no longer get in each other's way.

The construction project is estimated at 440 million euros, with the federal government contributing 340 million.

The other part is borne by Deutsche Bahn and the state of Hesse.

It is the second of three stages of the large-scale construction project to improve capacity on the southern access road to the main station.

In the first stage, the tracks at the Stadion station were modernized, in the third the route between the Stadion station and Zeppelinheim is to be expanded.

Preparatory work for the second construction phase has already begun;

the old Niederrad train station was demolished and preparations for the construction of a noise barrier have begun.

Next, four switches are to be laid in Niederrad.

In addition to the Main Bridge, the new construction phase includes six other bridges in Niederrad.

At the symbolic groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday, Berthold Huber, the board member responsible for infrastructure at Deutsche Bahn AG, said that the expansion of the route from four to six tracks would create space for 40 percent more trains on the way to Frankfurt Central Station.

In this way, a bottleneck in the route network is widened.

This is all the more important as it has become clear in recent years how important the railway is for a functioning community.

Michael Theurer, Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Transport, recalled that rail traffic should carry twice as many passengers by 2030 as it currently does;

the share of all goods traffic in Germany should increase from 18 to 25 percent in a growing market.

Two thirds of all long-distance trains

The Hessian Transport Minister Tarek Al-Wazir (Die Grünen) pointed out that further capacity expansion projects are planned in Frankfurt: "I will do a lot of advertising for the long-distance railway tunnel." Unlike the "Stuttgart 21" project, it will be different after its implementation not fewer, but more tracks in the main station, and unlike in the state capital of Baden-Württemberg, the station building in Frankfurt will not be demolished for this.

In addition, the following applies: "In the end, every infrastructure will help to improve not only long-distance traffic, but also local traffic." The Frankfurt traffic department head Stefan Majer (Die Grünen) said, "next year we will have ground-breaking ceremony after ground-breaking ceremony".

There is no way around Frankfurt when it comes to rail transport, but sufficient financing is necessary for the expansion.

Knut Ringat, spokesman for the managing directors of the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund, called the capacity expansion of the southern approach to Frankfurt main station a liberation. Two thirds of all long-distance trains in Germany touched the Frankfurt node.

Ringat expressed the hope that the long-distance tunnel could be realized as quickly as a comparable project in Zurich;

there it had taken 17 years from the start of planning to the opening.

Ringat expressed the hope that construction of the North Main S-Bahn could begin next year, followed by the Wallauer Spange in 2025.

This is Wiesbaden's second connection to the high-speed route from Cologne to Frankfurt, in the direction of Frankfurt Airport, which is intended to shorten the travel time from the Hessian state capital there.

Al-Wazir, Majer and Ringat pointed out that funds are not only needed for the expansion of the infrastructure, but also for ongoing operations;

The future level of regionalization funds made available to the federal states by the federal government is currently being negotiated, as are grants for a solution to replace the nine-euro ticket.

According to Deutsche Bahn, construction of the Main Bridge is to begin in 2024, and it is planned to move it to its final location in 2025.

It will be located next to the two existing Main bridges.

The entire construction project by Niederrad is to be completed in 2030.