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Track work on the railway: planning that is ready for construction, including for the important projects, would be put on hold, according to the notes
Photo: Rolf Zöllner / IMAGO
Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) does not provide Deutsche Bahn with enough money for its largest construction projects.
His own ministry officials warn him of this in several internal notes that SPIEGEL has received.
In the rail infrastructure, there will be a "dramatically growing investment backlog" in the coming years, it says.
The reason: the rail requirements plan is "dramatically" underfunded.
The reason for the warning is Wissing's budget planning, which is to be completed this month with the so-called adjustment session in the Bundestag.
The FDP politician's plans envisage providing Deutsche Bahn with a constant 2.2 billion euros per year for its expansion and new construction projects, but not increasing this sum.
In a graphic, the officials make it clear that these funds are far from sufficient.
Instead, the annual financing requirement at the end of the decade is six billion euros.
The consequence of the underfunding: plans that are ready for construction, even for the important projects, would be put on hold, according to the notes.
This could include the Frankfurt-Mannheim-Karlsruhe-Basel construction project, all major hubs (Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hanover, Cologne, Mannheim and Munich) and the Rhein-Ruhr-Express,
warn Wissing's people.
The Deutschlandtakt, which is intended to enable a half-hourly frequency on the most important long-distance routes in Germany in the future, is also up for grabs.
That would be in contradiction to Wissing's earlier promises: similar to his predecessors, the Minister of Transport wanted to make the railways a central part of the traffic turnaround.
Germany should thereby meet its obligations in climate protection.
Criticism of the unambitious budget plans comes from the pro-rail transport alliance.
Its managing director Dirk Flege says: "Federal Minister of Transport Wissing has so far lacked any ambition in the implementation of the traffic turnaround." It is therefore expected that the strengthening of rail transport promised in the coalition agreement will also be reflected in the federal budget.
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