Quarry in Listertal: standstill instead of gravel trains?

Quarry in Listertal: standstill instead of gravel trains?

Deutsche Bahn's decision to switch rail transport from railway ballast to trucks is causing a stir in the Brandenburg region. Until the devastating flood disaster in 2021, the quarry in Listertal was regularly connected by rail and delivered its products efficiently to customers. However, the damage to the route caused by the floods led to significant delays in its restoration, which was originally planned for the end of 2022.

For Basalt AG, operator of the quarry, the repair of the route was never an issue that was questioned. "In October 2022, we subjected our locomotive, which shunts the freight wagons, to a mandatory overhaul. This cost us around 100,000 euros," explains Norbert Ivenz-Gaul, the technical manager of Basalt AG. The announcement about the end of rail transport came as a complete surprise to the company - they learned about it from the press.

High transport volumes on the road

In an average year, around 50,000 tonnes of greywacke are mined in the Listertal, which corresponds to around 2,000 truckloads. In particularly good years, this number can even double. Since the flood, the gravel has had to be transported via the Märkischer Kreis road network to the Ruhr area and the Rhineland, which is putting additional pressure on the industrial and commercial infrastructure in the region.

“We are committed to convincing the railways to repair the route,” says Gordan Dudas, the transport policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group, in agreement with the South Westphalian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The railway, on the other hand, points to the priority of the necessary renovation measures for a tunnel and several bridges on the route. These measures would entail astronomical costs in the three-digit million range, which would not prove to be profitable considering that there are only two to three freight trains per week.

German citizens and companies are concerned about the impact of this decision. Freight transport by road will not only be more expensive, but also more inefficient, as significantly higher CO2 emissions are expected compared to rail transport. These points are now also being discussed in the public debate, as rail is considered to play an important role as an environmentally friendly means of transport.

The sources for these developments range from Deutsche Bahn and Basalt AG to the SPD parliamentary group and the South Westphalian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, all of which are involved in the issue. This topic was also covered on October 22, 2023 on WDR radio on WDR 2 and in the local time Südwestfalen, and can be listened to there by those interested.