Image: rbb

Tesla Gigafactory Berlin will receive a new railway station. It will enable the transport of more than 16,000 people per day, as well as thousands of vehicles, dramatically reducing pollutant emissions from trucking.

Since the founding of the Tesla factory, the number of passengers on the RE1 railway line has increased significantly. Deutsche Bahn wants to move the Fangschleuse station, which is used mostly by Tesla employees, closer to the factory. Cars produced at Gigafactory Berlin should also be transported by train. Deutsche Bahn wants to invest a total of €200 million in moving the Fangschleuse station closer to the Tesla factory, project manager Peter Schulz told rbb.

One of the goals is to make Tesla's freight transportation possible on railroad tracks which drastically reduces the emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere from trucks. With the location moved about 1.5 km (0.93 miles) to the west, Schulz said it will be possible to install longer platforms, which are needed in order to use the longer trains.

In addition, the increased capacity of the trains will be able to better meet the needs of Tesla, as most of its employees commute to work by train. The new railway station should greatly help with this. “That makes a completely new building necessary. And if we do a completely new building, then the place with the greatest need for traffic has to be chosen and that is just opposite the future main entrance to the plant,” Schulz said.

So the goal of the project is also to have as many Tesla employees as possible using the RE1 line to get to and from work. According to the information provided, the railway expects up to 16,300 passengers per day in the future, mostly Tesla employees. To handle this volume, the two platforms at the new station would need to be 220 meters (656 ft) long. This will also make it possible to use a longer train, with eight train carriages. An underpass with a bike path and elevators is also planned there.

According to Bahn, four additional 740-meter (2,427 ft) freight tracks, a bypass, and four sidings will be built for freight traffic. “Ultimately, we are building for a capacity of 23 pairs of trains per day,” says Schulze. “And if you calculate that a full freight train replaces around 50 large trucks, we would save a proportion of 1,200 truck journeys a day.” Overall, the railway could transport between 500,000 and 1.5 million cars a year from Tesla.

The start of construction of the new railway junction is scheduled for 2025. The new station is scheduled to enter service at the end of 2026. At present, the railway is still in the early stages of planning and is in the process of being approved. Public demonstration of plans and public participation in the discussion will begin in the first half of 2023.

© 2022, Eva Fox | Tesmanian. All rights reserved.

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