Survey on planned rail construction: majority of projects “not disputed”

Berlin. In contrast with the nation-wide uproar over the Stuttgart 21 project, the members of the German Pro-Rail Alliance were surprisingly unanimous in their verdict on the federal government’s 58 essential projects for railway expansion and new construction. The majority of the projects on the positive list were judged as ‘beyond dispute’. Only the Nuremburg – Erfurt project was considered by several member organisations to be ‘prestigious’ rather than necessary. In addition, there was no unanimous support from the Pro-Rail Alliance membership for the Stuttgart 21 project and the Fehmarn Belt Bridge project, both of which are not on the official list of projects that are classified as essential by the government.

Although individual Pro-Rail Alliance members believe that some of the other federal railway projects are controversial in their current design, all 17 member organisations agree that there is a real need for rail expansion in the corridors under consideration. These include the freight transport routes to and from the sea ports in a triangular area between Hamburg, Hanover and Bremen, the Mottgers Link in Spessart and the connection to Berlin’s airport. Otherwise, the vast majority of the government’s proposed projects, as they are currently planned, enjoy the unanimous approval of the pro rail lobby.

“Railway construction is what our alliance wants to see,” said the chairman of the Pro-Rail Alliance, Klaus-Dieter Hommel. “This approval comes from a broad range of opinion.” The members of the Pro-Rail Alliance include the environmental organisations BUND, NABU and Deutsche Umwelthilfe, the consumer groups Pro Bahn DBV and VCD, the automobile clubs ACE and ACV, and the three railway unions TRANSNET, GDBA und GDL. Hommel contradicted the common assumption that proposed rail construction projects fail in Germany because of resistance from all sides, especially from environmental organizations and other NGOs. “Our survey shows that this is not the case when it comes to the railways,” said Hommel. He also emphasised the fact that the number of prestige projects is satisfyingly low. In addition, the notion that the government could save money by concentrating on the infrastructure projects that are not disputed was shown to be a myth. Investments in essential railway projects that will increase capacity will require government funding of five billion Euros annually, according to the Pro-Rail Alliance.