Government admission: key rail projects lack funding

Berlin. In the debate on the future of investments in railway infrastructure, the German federal transport ministry has for the first time admitted that underfunding is affecting many of the new projects and improvement schemes classified as urgent in the federal network transport plan. At a ‘parliamentary evening’ hosted by the Pro-Rail Alliance on Thursday in Berlin, a corresponding ministry list was discussed publicly for the first time. The chairman of the parliamentary transport committee, Winfried Hermann, was joined by the head of the national rail operator Deutsche Bahn, Rüdiger Grube. They explained how key projects from all of the growth sectors within rail transport were affected. Calculations made by Deutsche Bahn show that the federal government has to spend 1.8 billion euros annually in order to ensure that urgent rail projects are completed by 2025. The transport ministry’s current budget is only 1.2 billion euros per year. “There is a large gap between the wish-list that is the federal transport network plan and the money that is being made available by the federal government,” commented Dirk Flege, the managing director of the Pro-Rail Alliance. The government must “now urgently prioritize its projects, right across the different modes of transport. “

For example, according to the federal transport ministry, there is no guaranteed funding for improvements to the lines in the Rhine Valley that are vital for freight transport. In addition, the much debated ‘Y-Line’ project in Lower Saxony has so far only been given funding for the planning stage. To date, money for actual construction has not been budgeted. The future of the largest segment of the so-called ‘chemical triangle’ in Bavaria is also uncertain, with only insufficient funding for the Mühldorf rail infrastructure project. Underfunded projects in metropolitan areas would above all affect commuters. For example, improvements to the busy railway hubs in Mannheim, Dresden, Berlin and Frankfurt are threatened by the lack of funding. Inter-city passenger transport is also affected: the line Frankfurt – Mannheim is one of several still waiting for a funding agreement with the federal government. Even international agreements are not forcing the government to make funds available. Projects to improve the line Berlin – Dresden – Prague are still largely without any financial backing.

The railway alliance’s managing director, Dirk Flege, warned the transport ministry against hiding behind the economics of scarcity. “The German railway network has been underfunded for years,” said Flege, pointing out how much Germany’s European neighbours invested in their own networks in 2008. Switzerland proudly spent 248 euros per capita on its rail network. In Austria it was still a respectable 205 euros. For the German government, its rail network was worth only 47 euros per head of population, lower even than Italy, which spent 60 euros per person. “Germany is in danger of being left behind internationally,” said Flege, and called on federal transport minister Peter Ramsauer from the coalition partner CSU to finally turn his words into deeds. “The minister has denied the existence of a list of projects that will be cancelled. We are taking him at his word.” said Flege. “We are also against cancelling projects. Road transport has enjoyed priority status for many years. That is no longer appropriate.” Flege added: “After years of uncertainty for railway projects, the onus is now on the federal government to develop a comprehensive concept on how it wants to coordinate traffic flows in the future. How much should it spend on the roads, how much on the railways? How can this be achieved? Where are the bottlenecks? These are the questions that the federal government must now urgently address.”