Status: 16.01.2024, 19:01 PM
By: Amy Walker
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In order to save on the federal budget, the traffic light government also wants to curb investments in freight transport. Environmental groups are outraged.
Berlin – The traffic light coalition is still under enormous pressure because of its plans for cuts in the 2024 budget. On the one hand, there are the farmers' protests, which have been causing chaos for almost a week now. But there is also trouble at the railways – and no longer just because the GDL union has gone on strike for several days. The government also wants to cut rail transport, by a total of 300 million euros.
EVG warns: Thousands of jobs at risk due to cuts
This has met with massive criticism from transport associations and environmental organisations. "We urgently appeal to budgetary politicians to reconsider these plans. Otherwise, rail freight transport in Germany will be on the brink of collapse and thousands of jobs will be at risk," said the chairman of the EVG trade union, Martin Burkert, on Thursday (11 January).
"The fact that almost all of the cuts in the transport budget are to be offloaded onto the railways is outrageous and a rather lousy New Year's message. The lion's share is to be shouldered by rail freight transport, of all things. However, this is precisely what is indispensable for the transport turnaround and a realistic chance of achieving the climate targets," it continues.
A passenger gets on an S-Bahn train with his bike. © Andreas Arnold/dpa/Symbolbild
The managing director of the Pro-Rail Alliance, Dirk Flege, also said on Thursday that the German government was jeopardising its self-imposed goal of increasing the market share of the railways. Greenpeace mobility expert Marissa Reiserer said: "The Finance Ministry's austerity plans sound like a transport policy retroshocker from the 60s: improvements for climate-friendly cycling are being cancelled, the urgently needed funding for the railways is shaky, but billions for the construction of more and more motorways are not to be touched. This is transport policy from the day before yesterday."
The Bundestag still has to vote on the 2024 budget. The adjustment meeting of the Committee on Budgets is scheduled for next week.
Cuts in cycling: "Sounds like a bad joke"
Peter Westenberger, Managing Director of the Network of European Railways, spoke of a "targeted budget clear-cut" in rail freight transport. The government wants to get goods off the rails and back on the road. Almost 300 million euros, or 54 percent, were to be cut in the case of train path and asset prices, the promotion of innovation and direct freight transport infrastructure financing. "If this continues, CO₂ emissions will rise, while the credibility of the traffic light in terms of freight transport policy will fall below zero."
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According to the government's plans, there will also be cuts in cycling – which will cause even more trouble. Among other things, a subsidy program for bicycle parking garages at train stations is to be abolished, according to a submission by the Ministry of Finance.
The federal chairman of the General German Bicycle Club, Frank Masurat, said: "It sounds like a bad joke: Instead of cutting back on climate-polluting car traffic or regional airports, the federal government wants to cut back on cycling in 2024. 1.5 million urgently needed bicycle parking spaces at train stations will continue to be sorely lacking if, as apparently planned, the traffic lights remove the bicycle parking program at train stations." With cuts of 44.6 million euros in the special program for city and country, the federal government will additionally hinder the already agonizingly slow expansion of cycle paths in the municipalities.
"This will further exacerbate the frustration and dangers for cyclists in Germany and is an additional setback for the climate-friendly transport of the future," Masurat criticized. "We need the annual bicycle billion, which the Conference of Transport Ministers has also defined as necessary."
With material from dpa