According to the Federal Court of Auditors, Deutsche Bahn lacks billions of euros this year. "By the end of the year 2019, there will be a significant funding gap of almost three billion euros," says a report to the Bundestag. The paper is available to the German Press Agency.
If a sale of the foreign subsidiary Arriva does not close this gap or the business does not come about, the railways can not finance their investments "from own strength", are called it in the document. Added to this would be additional financial challenges such as the procurement of new trains, the digitization of rail or the Stuttgart 21 project, which the German-owned Group can not "absorb through cash flow generated by operations".
The railway had announced on Thursday afternoon that she had no report from the Court of Auditors. At its meeting on September 18, the Supervisory Board will discuss a concept for financing the growth strategy. "In short, there is a clear roadmap for investments in trains, infrastructure and personnel worth billions of euros, and the financial stability of the DB Group is reflected, among other things, in the unchanged good rating on the capital market," emphasized Deutsche Bahn.
"For years missing a political control of the owner federation"
The Green Bundestag member Sven Christian Kindler criticized, Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer and its predecessors Alexander Dobrindt and Peter Ramsauer (all CSU) had ignored the problems of the railway. "For years missing a political control of the owner federation", said Kindler. The company has become independent, a corporate restructuring is overdue. This also includes changing the legal form AG.
Already in a special report in January, the Court of Auditors called on the federal government, as the owner of Deutsche Bahn, to sell all parts of the company that were not required.
