Infrastructure: Europe's rail networks continue to shrink

^{Source: Allianz pro Schiene/EU Commission. Date: June 2011}

"This reduction is what politicians want, in spite of all their pious talk about supporting rail transport," said Dirk Flege, managing director of the German Pro-Rail Alliance. He warned against simply heaping the blame for the years of "blood-letting" onto the national operator's (Deutsche Bahn) network subsidiary. "The responsibility for the national rail network lies with the German government, and reductions in the size of the network are always a political decision." Flege pointed out that during the same period, Germany's motorway network expanded by 9.4 percent, another massive increase. "To date, German politicians have been very one-sided in their backing for roads."

In spite of the fact that average EU figures show a downward trend, there are countries with considerable network growth. "A few European states are quite consciously backing railway expansion," said Flege, citing Spain (plus 8.5 percent), Italy (plus 5.0 percent) and Belgium (plus 3.1) as good examples. Even France, which saw dramatic network shrinkage before 2000, has now reported slight growth (2.2 percent) to the EU Commission. Nevertheless, the EU ranking does contain some consolation for Germany. "According to the EU statistics, the rate of network shrinkage in Germany has slowed down. Whereas the German state closed or gave away 10.7 percent of lines in the first 10 years after reunification, that figure dropped to 7.9 percent for 10 years since the new millennium," said Flege.

The Pro-Rail Alliance believes that a performance and funding agreement for the existing 34,000 km national rail network, which came into force in 2009, will further reduce the rate of network shrinkage. "The financial incentives agreed between the federal government and Deutsche Bahn were formulated to ensure that the state can hand over responsibility for a maximum of 2 percent of the rail network by 2013. That is a move in the right direction but it is nowhere near enough. The goal must be to achieve growth in Germany's rail network, not line closure," said the Pro-Rail Alliance managing director.

Additional information (in German)