Accidents involving harmful water pollutants increasing in Germany

Berlin/Burghausen. The transport of hazardous freight in Germany has been increasing for years. The number of accidents involving substances harmful to water has also increased, by 3.4 percent in the last three years, according to figures published by the Federal Office of Statistics. The German Pro-Rail Alliance (Allianz pro Schiene) is calling on the German government to invest more money in railway infrastructure to enable hazardous freight to be shifted from the roads, where accidents are more likely, to the relatively safer railways. “The transport of hazardous goods by rail is statistically 40 times safer than on the roads. German companies actually want to transport their hazardous freight by rail, but suitable rail infrastructure is often not available,” said Dirk Flege, managing director of the Pro-Rail Alliance, on Thursday in Berlin.

“We would very much like to transport more chemicals by freight train instead of on trucks. However, the lack of progress on work to expand the rail line between Munich and Freilassing via Mühldorf, which was announced years ago but has still not been finished, is a real handicap,” confirmed Dr. Willie Kleine, the works manager at Wacker-Chemie, which is located in Burghausen, Bavaria.

“Hazardous freight belongs on the railways. Fortunately, the transport of such goods by rail is growing at a faster rate than by road – an increase of 18 percent since 2003 compared with 15 percent by road. However, for safety reasons, all the increase in the volume of transport should be shifted on the railways,” demanded the alliance’s managing director Dirk Flege.