The suitability of turnouts with fixed switch diamonds for high running speeds – measuring subsidence and strain at Brieselang station

The design of the turnout crossings on the Hamburg – Berlin track section (single crossings with fixed switch diamonds) currently limits the running speed to 200 km/h.

[1]. As, in the next few years, Deutsche Bahn AG (DB AG) is intending to increase speeds over this track from the current 160 km/h to as much as 230 km/h, DB AG is intending to use the approval procedure to demonstrate to the Federal Railway Office that suitable structural measures at these turnouts at the ballast subbase level will mean that the increased traffic flow will not increase the stress on the crossing or the ballast at all, or at least, only to a justifiable extent. An intended suitable structural measure would be to fit the turnouts with elastic support points.