On a hot May afternoon near Wuppertal, a colossal track-renewal train nicknamed Mammoth inches along one of Germany’s oldest railway lines, ripping out old sleepers, ballast and rails before replacing them with new ones.
Nearly 200 years after the first commercial train ran in Germany, the work is part of a historic effort to rebuild the country’s network and a major priority in the government’s landmark €1tn debt-funded spending plans.
German railways have become so unreliable that transport minister Patrick Schnieder warned in March that they risk undermining democracy if citizens lose faith in the state’s ability to deliver basic services.
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