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Transport Minister Volker Wissing: The higher construction costs are also to blame for the bottlenecks
Photo: Frank Ossenbrink / IMAGO
Deutsche Bahn's rail projects will be delayed by decades if the federal government does not provide more money for them.
This is suggested by a statement by the Ministry of Transport about the urgent need for the Federal Transport Route Plan.
With the funds of around two billion euros approved in the 2022 budget, the planned new construction and expansion projects would not be completed until 2071, the lobby association Pro-Rail Alliance has calculated.
This is also due to the higher construction costs.
The government puts their increase between 2016 and 2021 at around 24.7 percent, which does not include the massive price increases of this year.
The Pro-Rail Alliance is calling for the federal government to spend significantly more money in order to achieve its goals.
If you want to implement the projects by 2030, 12.2 billion euros would have to be invested in the rail infrastructure every year, says association head Dirk Flege.
Projects such as the new high-speed line between Hanover and Bielefeld are actually urgently needed if the number of passengers is to be doubled by the end of the decade.
Contrary to the coalition agreement of the traffic light coalition, however, significantly more sums are still being invested in the expansion of the road infrastructure than in the railways.
Flege said that had to change.
He advises using the revenue from the truck toll for rail.
The three traffic light parties originally decided that, but still haven't implemented it.
The calculations do not refer to the money that accrues for the renovation of the dilapidated rail network.
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