Off the rails

This is taken on the mainline Munich to Zürich, Switzerland line, one of the last main lines to be electrified in Germany. These double-decker coaches are I think being phased out. Not sure why perhaps one can't use them with an electric track.

Last year the stretch from Memmingen to Buchloe (eastwards half way to Munich) was completely closed but now open. Diesel trains continue to be used as the westward section to Lake Constance is now being done. The plan is to be electric by December 2020.

The Swiss have contributed an over-proportional part of the cost, desperate to improve the Munich connection. However, I still don't understand why much of the line remains single track and thus will only slightly improve the dreadfully slow time down to 3.5 hours for 300km.

Still, I guess for the environment it will be an improvement.

Taken on the evening walk at Sontheim our parish capital where we had a hugely expensive new underpass to allow for the electrification.  Talking of which, our PV is hammering out electricity and despite the first 10 days of February being bad (cloud &/or snow), we will probably double last years February result.

When I saw the photo on the big notebook screen, spotted the tower in the far background poking out of the trees. It's about 10km away and is a new weather radar tower. In 2005, southern Bavaria got badly hit by flooding for which the emergency services were not prepared. Satellites can predict clouds & thunderstorms but can't quantify the amount of rain. Thus we now have this 60m high, €2.8m tower looking after us. There was no real public opposition but the village closest to it is annoyed they can't put up any windmills close by as the blades would conflict with the radar pictures.

Sensible compromise wins the day.