With ship transport in Germany declining because of low water levels, Deutsche Bahn reportedly intends to return freight wagons that had already been withdrawn from service to operation. The plan is set out in a paper by DB Cargo chief Bernhard Osburg prepared for the "Verkehrsträgerübergreifende Koordinierungsrunde Niedrigwasser" (cross-modal coordination group on low water), the "Rheinische Post" reported in its Saturday edition.
According to the document seen by the newspaper, "the reactivation of permanently withdrawn freight wagons is being examined and prepared". In addition, further wagon capacity is to be secured "on the European market". DB Cargo could mobilise 900 wagons in this way, 300 of them immediately. "900 wagons replace 200 inland vessels," Osburg explains, according to the report.
In light of the low water levels, Federal Transport Minister Steffen Bilger (CDU) had announced that freight should be shifted from inland vessels to rail and road. The federal states responded by relaxing Sunday driving bans for trucks. The railway, too, is expected to carry more goods.
The Rhine in particular, the country's most important waterway, is currently carrying less water than ever before. Inland shipping is therefore severely restricted. Water levels have been at record lows since the end of July after weeks of heatwaves and scarce rainfall. The BDB inland shipping association has warned that the reading at Kaub, the reference gauge for vessels on the river, was expected to fall further, leaving the Rhine effectively divided in two.
"With water levels this low, commercial shipping will no longer be able to transport goods in the region," the group's managing director Jens Schwanen told the Rheinische Post newspaper. "In principle, this means the Rhine is no longer continuously navigable and thus divided in two." There would still be shipping on the river in the Netherlands and in Germany up to around Cologne, and further south on several tributaries, he said.
Cargo ships have kept moving, though with reduced loads and at higher cost, and companies including Thyssenkrupp and BASF have switched to shallow-draft vessels. No shipping bans are in place; captains decide themselves how to adjust their loads.
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