New Maintenance Plant Cottbus: Southern Railway Station
PROJECT OF THE MONTH 06/2026. With the official opening of “Bahnhof Süd” (Southern railway station) on 15 April 2026 a further important milestone in the large-scale project “Neues Werk Cottbus” was reached. The new train storage facility of the railway station Cottbus was officially taken over by DB InfraGO within the scope of an opening ceremony and shows how the project of the future gradually takes shape – our FCP Project of the Month 6/2026!
After the start of operation of the railway station HKW (power and heat supply station) in September 2025, Bahnhof Süd will take over a central function for the future infrastructure of the new maintenance plant. On behalf of Rhomberg Sersa Rail Group FCP was responsible for the outdoor and traffic facilities and brought in comprehensive interdisciplinary expertise into one of Germany’s currently biggest railway infrastructure projects.
Location. Cottbus, Germany
Services. Basic design, approval design, bill of quantities and tender design, detailed design
Highly Complex Infrastructure without Interrupting Railway Operation
What looks like a classical storage facility at first sight, is actually a highly complex infrastructure project with an enormous planning and coordination effort. All in all 15 tracks with a total length of approx. 5,300 metres were realized – complemented by numerous turnouts, 350 m of noise barriers, roads and paths, supply and disposal lines, underground cable engineering, a crossing as well as extensive design of green areas.
Especially challenging were the geotechnical measures: excavation pits with sheet piling and high-pressure soil cement stabilization had to be precisely designed and implemented. At the same time the railway systems of several project partners had to be seamlessly integrated into the total design.
An additional challenge was the implementation without interrupting railway operation – a factor which had to be already consistently considered during design, and which was highly demanding for building phase coordination, safety and technical coordination.
Important Contribution to the Mobility of the Future
The new Bahnhof Süd takes over a central function within the total project “Neues Werk Cottbus”. The new facility creates additional capacities for passenger and freight traffic, reduces operational dependencies in the main railway station and enables more efficient processes. At the same time modern technical standards like comprehensive noise protection measures were consistently implemented.
“Neues Werk Cottbus” is one of Germany’s most important infrastructure and railway projects in the field of sustainable mobility and the future maintenance of modern rail vehicles.
Interdisciplinary Cooperation as Success Factor
What has to be especially stressed is the close cooperation of many CCs: Since 2022 experts from the various fields have been working at the implementation of the project. The following Competence Centers are involved: Railway Engineering, Traffic Design Roads, Water Management, Bridge Design & Structural Analysis, Geotechnics & Natural Hazards, Civil Engineering, Structural Health Monitoring, VCE Cluj and FCP Ingenieure Germany.
Currently the last planning processes are running for “Bahnhof Nord” (Northern railway station) and the actual plant area at full speed. The target is a timely start of operation of the new plant for heavy maintenance and therefore a further important step for the future of European railway traffic.
