The technical condition of the German railway network is deplorable. Stellwerke are partly still from the imperial era, forfeited bridges and tracks can only be used at a reduced pace. All this leads to annoyance at the rail customers, read every month new to the delay statistics of the Deutsche Bahn.
But actually everything should change now. Because train driving is good for the climate, which is why the federal government is currently extremely generous.
On this Thursday, parliamentarians of the Committee on Budgets are discussing the so-called Performance and Financing Agreement III (LuFV), a huge modernization budget for state ailing infrastructure that will come into force next year and run for ten years. In the budget exactly 51.425 billion euros are set, so that the train finally no longer runs on wear - so the situation is no longer worse, but stabilized.
Abdominal pain with a view to the cash flow
But the Federal Court of Auditors has big stomach pains about the way the money should flow. The "systematic shortcomings" criticized by the controllers for the first two predecessors of the Performance and Financing Agreement would "remain conserved for a decade if unconditionally estimated by the Budgetary Legislator," the auditors wrote in a twenty-page report the budgetary politicians of the Bundestag, who is the SPIEGEL. The inspectors warn against a so-called petrifaction effect, and urge urgently to let the spending of the funds by the parliament more control.
Four recommendations are at the center:
- Parliament could close the budget and release it in installments "every two years", write the officials of the Court of Auditors.
- In particular, the entry into force of the LuFV in 2020 could be made conditional on "the parties' willingness to consider parliamentary demands," the report said on 8 November.
- Before each release of another tranche, the Federal Ministry of Transport should control the success and report it to Parliament.
- These parliamentary reservations should be included in the treaty of the LuFV.
The Federal Court of Audit hopes that the funds will be better invested than in the past. Basically, the inspectors praise that the railway, and here the Infrastructure Board Ronald Pofalla, over twice as long a period almost twice as much money to get as before. That would give the construction industry "the planned planning security". Companies could invest better in new construction equipment and hire staff. All this consolidates the investments in the run-down technology of the railway.
Already in September, the Court of Auditors had dismantled the agreement for deficiencies. The now completed version, which covers several hundred pages, does not seem to have upset the fears of the controllers. That's why they write a new report just three months later.
"The new Court of Auditors report shows clearly what is wrong between the federal government and the railway," criticizes the budget politician Victor Perli of the Left Party. Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU) can not handle the problems with the railway. "The Department of Transportation needs to make more of an impact on rail to be on time, cheap and close to the people, and not just a few top managers and consultancies," Perli says.
Minister Scheuer has recently become active: In a letter, he has asked the railway boss Richard Lutz to submit by November 14 concrete measures against the many problems Group. In three days, this ultimatum expires.
