The Karlsruhe-Basel railway line in Germany is being upgraded and expanded to increase capacity and operational efficiency is one of the oldest and most significant railway lines in Germany It is being expanded and upgraded to accommodate growing long-distance and freight traffic and clear bottlenecks Railway company Deutsche Bahn is developing the project which will expand the railway line to include four tracks along with upgraded infrastructure The project is being carried out under the Federal Railways’ network expansion programme and is part of the European infrastructure plan The Karlsruhe-Basel railway line runs between Karlsruhe in Germany and Basel in Switzerland It is a part of the European freight corridor between Rotterdam and Genoa under the Trans-European Networks The 170-year-old Rhine Valley railway line between Karlsruhe and Basel serves approximately 300 local which is more than its existing design capacity Trains in certain sections of the railway line slow down to 70km/h due to its age and outdated design The railway line upgrade will improve the speed of trains running on all tracks from 160km/h to between 200km/h and 250km/h It will help in shifting heavy goods traffic from road to rail it will reduce the travel time between Karlsruhe and Basel from 100 minutes to approximately 70 minutes it will enable the separation of slow and fast-moving rail traffic The Karlsruhe-Basel railway line upgrade includes work on a total of nine sections The first section covers 23.4km from Karlsruhe to Rastatt South while sections two to six cover 42km from Rastatt South to Offenburg and section seven covers 46.5km from Appenweier to Kenzingen Section eight covers 45.3km from Kenzingen to Mullheim while section nine covers 31.2km from Muellheim to Basel The line upgrade is being designed using Building Information Modelling (BIM) to provide effective operations facilitating cross-border traffic The Rastatt and Katzenberg tunnels are being constructed using sonic boom structures to decrease loud sounds when trains enter and exit tunnels Construction on section one commenced in 2013 and includes the development of the 5km-long Rastatt tunnel The subsections include Karlsruhe to Bashaide junction Bashaide to Otigheim and Otigheim to Rastatt South Sections two to six have been operational since 2004 and included the modernisation of ten stations and 81 bridges Two new long-distance tracks were constructed parallel to the existing railway line with an operating speed of 250km/h Renchen and Appenweier of the section were upgraded The planning for section seven began in 2016 Works include the modernisation of six stations and the construction of the 11km-long Offenburg tunnel which will be the longest tunnel of the railway line The section includes subsections from Appenweier to Hohberg and from Hohberg to Kenzingen Section eight includes the construction of two double-track lines for freight traffic including the Menger tunnel and the modernisation of 16 stations The subsections of this section include Kenzingen to Riegel/Malterdingen Bad Krozingen to Mullheim and Teningen to Buggingen Section nine includes the construction of the 9.3km-long Katzenberg Tunnel apart from new tracks and the modernisation of seven stations Haltingen-Weil am Rhein and Basel sections The project also includes the construction of five signal boxes 112 road and railway overpasses and 35 new renovation breakpoints The European Union provided $338.9m in funding for the project under the Connecting Europe Facility funding programme Engineering services provider KREBS+KIEFER is providing noise-related investigations and industrial vibration protection for the project Engineering company ZPP Ingenieure provides planning and design work services using BIM offered planning services related to general technical equipment planning Engineering company SSF provided the design of the ballastless track for the Katzenberg tunnel Software company ProVI offered basic evaluation design planning and approval planning services for the Appenweier-Hohberg section Planning company OBERMEYER is creating a BIM inventory model and planning for the project A joint venture of construction companies Wayss & Freytag IngenieurbauEd. Zublin, Marti Tunnelbau and Jager Bau was responsible for the construction of the Katzenberg tunnel supplied electric point heating systems for the line upgrade Give your business an edge with our leading industry insights View all newsletters from across the GlobalData Media network We take the pulse of the PCB industry by sharing insights from leading fabricators and suppliers in this month's issue We've gathered their thoughts on the new U.S It’s an eye-opening and enlightening look behind the curtain We go back to basics this month with a recount of a little history and look forward to addressing the many challenges that high density and corrosion concerns for harsh environments bring to the fore We compare and contrast surface finishes by type and application take a hard look at the many iterations of gold plating In this month’s issue of PCB007 Magazine we reimagine the possibilities featuring stories all about IPC APEX EXPO 2025—covering what to look forward to and what you don’t want to miss.  is pleased to report that they achieved significant increase in productivity with the installation of Gardien’s KAIMA GUDAA with a grid pitch of 70mil (Double Density) achieves an efficient test throughput of 500 - 600 boards per hour The state-of-the-art Gardien's KAIMA test system can be easily adapted to accommodate different PCB formats and thicknesses Due to the fine density of 200 grid points per square inch and in combination with 3.75 inch fixture even complex printed circuit boards can be accurately tested Higher grid densities with a pitch down to 35 mil (Octo-Density 800 features per square inch) are available for this tester type as well based on the test results in different locations and can create an offset of the stack at pre-set numbers to allow for easy and fast counting The lower pressure unit minimizes risk of pad damage and has an alignment function to respond to even a slight top-to-bottom misalignment Storz put particular focus on the possibility to use already existing single density fixtures on a new installation Gardien also helped Storz to upgrade the work environment by adding the latest FixGenius fixture software from UCAMCO (Gardien’s sister company) which works seamlessly and also has an optional full automatic with the UCAM Cam system already in place The latest Fault Station repair seats finalized the upgrade Managing Director of Schaltungsdruck Storz GmbH particularly appreciates that a German-language support service is provided through the Gardien branch in Limburg "As one of the leading PCB manufacturers in Germany we always strive to keep our technologies up-to-date in order to ensure our product quality and delivery performance is on par with the best even with evolving customer requirements." Gardien Europe Director Holger Kern expressed his satisfaction with the introduction of this new generation test system for Storz circuit printing "Both companies have been working together intensively for many years and we see ourselves determined in our strategy to secure and maintain our market leadership with innovative solutions It will become more and more crucial in the future to design cost conscious test processes for highly complex PCBs Gardien works today on the solutions for tomorrow." The Gardien Group is the world's largest independent provider of test and quality assurance solutions to the electronic industry From testing small batches in one of 18 locations across Asia North America and Europe to fully integrated PCB inspection as an on-site department the Gardien Group's over 450 employees serve customers worldwide in the automotive telecommunications and aerospace industries