Authority (Eisenbahn-Bundesamt—EBA) stated that in Bavaria, in contrast to Thuringia, changes to the planning approval decisions would have led to a risk of third-party objections. The Federal Audit Office considered this to be inaccurate, since the reduction in the distance between the tracks in Bavaria would have reduced the extent to which the environment was affected. Near the Augustaburg tunnel, the track distance is reduced to 4.00 metres. The track changes are designed for a branch speed of 130 km/h. The distances of the overtaking facilities were determined in a study conducted by the company and are measured according to the planned operating program. The ETCS Level 2 is being deployed on the Ebensfeld–Erfurt–Halle/Leipzig route without trackside signals and with no signal-based fallback for the first time in Germany. An ETCS line centre for the high-speed line is planned in Unterleiterbach. It was still planned in 2014 to upgrade ETCS to Baseline 3. Meanwhile, (2015), it is planned to operate the line under the SRS 2.3.0 D and to upgrade the line to Baseline 3 later. As a fallback to ETCS, an intermittent train control system (Punktförmige Zugbeeinflussung) was modelled, which would allow operations outside of stations with turnouts at speeds of up 160 km/h. Procedures were also developed for dealing with a malfunctioning GSM-R Base transceiver station, so that trains can be run through. Various solutions were investigated for the realisation of the ban on passenger and freight trains operating through tunnels at the same time and a special system was conceived, which transmits permissions at the entrance gateways to tunnels, as long as certain criteria are met. For this purpose, configuration data (e.g. tunnel areas) and rules for permissible and impermissible adjustments as well as train categories, which have different characteristics (e.g. axle pattern and ETCS train category), have been developed. A corresponding system was in the final phase of development in the middle of 2015. 26 GSM-R base transceiver stations and 31 repeaters are provided for voice and data communication. The route is part of the trans-European high-speed railway network as defined in the Technical Specification for Interoperability. The route is to be controlled by seven electronic interlockings that are remotely controlled from signalling control centres in Munich and Leipzig. In 2014, the Federal Audit Office criticised the fact that the provision of €54 million for the signaling technology of the line had been made on the