Pro-Rail Alliance response to Federal Environment Agency study

Berlin. The Pro-Rail Alliance has welcomed the results of a study on infrastructure carried out by the Federal Environment Agency. “Government investment of 11 billion Euros in rail infrastructure would create the conditions for a doubling of rail freight transport. We now finally have a basis for discussing how the long-overdue turnaround in freight transport can be supported in terms of infrastructure,” said the Pro-Rail Alliance managing director Dirk Flege on Thursday in Berlin. “Transport Minister Peter Ramsauer said at the end of 2009 that any increase in freight transport should, as far as possible, be put onto the railways. He now has a suitable study to support his aims,” commented Flege.

“On top of that, a recent conference of the German Trade and Industry Association also called for a massive expansion of the rail network to cope with the increase in freight transport, and backed this up with a study. So the ball is now very much in the ministry’s court,” said the rail alliance’s managing director. The Pro-Rail Alliance believes that there is a shortfall of around one billion Euros in Minister Ramsauer’s budget for the necessary expansion of the railway network. The minister and the Federal Parliament have to work together to “plug this funding gap as soon as possible”. Alongside the necessary re-evaluation of new construction projects that up to now have been prioritised by the government, there should be “no taboos” about shifting government funding from the budget for highway construction.