Germany’s national railway company Deutsche Bahn unveiled a pair of initiatives heralded as aiding a wider modernisation plan, comprising a move to further develop AI tools for its operations and a separate pact with mobile providers to explore ways to improve 5G coverage on its network.

Both announcements were both made at the German government’s Digital Summit 2024 in Frankfurt, held yesterday (21 October).

In the first of its moves, the transport player revealed the foundation of an AI training platform developed alongside Schwarz Digits, the digital unit of retailer Lidl’s parent company.

The DataHub Europe platform curates information from industry and media sources which it will make available for training of AI models within a secure infrastructure.

Ultimately, the aim is to speed the development of company-specific AI products and aid business applications.

It was developed in collaboration with partners including publishing companies, which have made their data available, and organisations in the AI space.

Rules have been put into place for sensitive data use and appropriate application of European Union legal requirements.

“DataHub Europe thus promotes the right of self-determination of rights holders and makes an important contribution to strengthening digital sovereignty in Germany and Europe,” the partners noted.

Deutsche Bahn chief digital and technology officer Daniela Gerd tom Markotten added the platform would allow it to “process data in a protected European infrastructure”, which “enables us to integrate AI applications into our everyday work as useful and legally compliant tools”.

“At the same time, we benefit from the data and expertise of the partners in the ecosystem and can jointly develop even more powerful AI solutions. AI makes us more efficient both in administration and in rail operations, and thus makes an important contribution to our restructuring” programme.

5G move
The transport player’s other major announcement at the event was a “declaration of intent” signed with the four main mobile operators in Germany and the government to use the Hamburg-Berlin railway line to test requirements needed to supply “gigabit-capable 5G coverage” for train passengers.

As part of general renovation work on the route radio masts for the so-called Future Rail Mobile Communication System will be installed.

German operators Deutsche Telekom and 1&1, alongside the local units of Vodafone and Telefonica, will then examine the “extent to which they can offer rail passengers gigabit bandwidths for mobile and data connections in the future by sharing the new radio masts close to the tracks”.   

The moves were both positioned as contributing to Deutsche Bahn’s S3 restructuring programme, which was implemented to improve its infrastructure, rail operations and, ultimately, bottom line.