For the uninvolved; this is about the capacity of the planned new station and its accesses. The plan foresees the complete closure of the present 15-track terminus (it's a real estate project in disguise after all) and the new construction of an underground 8-track through station. The question is, is that enough? Now as in the case of all too many rail projects, managers will show nice PowerPoint presentations with nice high daily capacities... but traffic doesn't run with the same frequency all day.

Now one can juggle numbers for stress tests, but compare through main stations in Düsseldorf: 16 tracks, Dortmund: 16 tracks (some of those tracks aren't through), Berlin: 6+8 tracks (two levels), Essen: 13 tracks, Duisburg: 12 tracks, Cologne: 11 tracks; even Bremen (which gets less long-distance through traffic) has 9 tracks.

Then there are the tunnels and junctions that are supposed to carry both long-distance and local traffic, but see epochepoque's diaries for details.

(Vienna's in-construction new main station, another real estate project in disguise involving the replacement of terminus stations with a through station, will have 10 tracks.)

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}