Deutsche Bahn Passenger Operations

Actually goes back further than that. It was mainly the US that rebuilt the entire rail infrastructure which had been near obliterated during WWII. Thus the US $$$ went to W. Germany at same time as much was wearing out in USA. Post-war Europe got a huge boost by putting them "back on the rails".

Then, US $$$$ went into the Federal Defense Highway System and airports in the 50's and onward. Meanwhile, railroads were being taxed by everyone in sight for tracks going through their 'turf' No wonder so much was abandoned, or from multi tracked to single.

Actually, several electrified double-track lines in Eastern Germany had one track torn up and catenary pulled by the Soviets, and the copper wire, sleepers and rails sent to the Soviet Union as war compensation. Some of the lines didn't get their electrification and double track reinstated until after the reunification (and some of them still haven't).

last night , on radio New zealand , there was a doco about a man going from Berlin to Paris , then onto England , by sleeper train , then eurostar . He said the overnite train took 12 hours , and was reasonably comfortable in couchette . Ill try to find a link to the programme .

USRailFan wrote:Actually, several electrified double-track lines in Eastern Germany had one track torn up and catenary pulled by the Soviets, and the copper wire, sleepers and rails sent to the Soviet Union as war compensation. Some of the lines didn't get their electrification and double track reinstated until after the reunification (and some of them still haven't).

That´s an understatement. IIRC almost all double track lines were reduce to one track. In the case of overhead lines it was even worse. According to wikipedia all lines in the east were de-electrified and all but one (Frankfurt/Oder-Berlin-Magdeburg-Erfurt) lost the second track.