“Leipzig is the Davos of mobility. We are committed to invest in transport infrastructure, including innovation projects of the sector, as all transport modes mean responsibility of a society. With the digitalization of the mobility, we are experiencing the most exciting phase of innovation since motorization. The countries’ special responsibility relies on innovation that tends to be concentrated in metropolises. That is why we are investing in a comprehensive and high-performance infrastructure. We bring gigabit networks into the regions and the automated driving on the road. We want to turn Germany into a gigabit society. We will invest EUR 100 billion into digital infrastructure,” said Alexander Dobrindt, Germany’s Minister of Transport at the ITF 2017 Summit.
We remind that in March, the German Transport Minister and the members of the Network Alliance for a Digital Germany adopted he “Gigabit Germany Initiative for the Future” that calls on EUR 100 billion investment to create a high-performance broadband network in Germany by 2025. In the same month, the ministry made EUR 4 billion available to connect inadequately covered regions to superfast broadband. From 2018, the ministry’s investment in digital infrastructure is to be sustained at approximately 10 percent of the Federal Government’s net investment. This means another EUR 3 billion euros of the Government funding per annum for high-speed Internet.
For the railway system, in June 2016, Alexander Dobrindt, the ex-DB CEO Rüdiger Grube and German Railway Association CEO, Volker Schenk signed an agreement on the implementation of the railway digitalisation strategy. It focuses on 5 large pillars that include a EUR 5 billion investment, by 2020, for the modernisation and digitalisation of the railway network with investments allotted for signalling solutions (such ETCS). Until 2020, the plans for the design and construction of a digitally-improved transport network will become a standard.
Under its digitalisation campaign, Deutsche Bahn is working on more than 150 projects related to this topic in all areas, from passenger transport to freight transport and logistics to infrastructure, operations and IT.
As part digitalisation strategy, in February 2017 it was was officially opened the Deutsche Bahn Asset & Maintenance Digital Lab, named “ampulse”. It will be home of IT development engineers, data scientists, transformation experts and specialists from DB Cargo and other sectors of the DB Group who are working on highly diverse automation and digitalisation projects relating to rolling stock and maintenance. The focus is currently on rail freight transport, but other projects on passenger transport and vehicle maintenance at DB will follow.
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