As of: February 22, 2024, 5:55 p.m
By: Florian Naumann
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Always trouble with the train: The traffic light wants to be able to give more money for the rails in Germany - but the Union senses new problems.
Berlin/Munich – The railway network is dilapidated – for once all parties in the Bundestag seem to agree on this.
However, when it comes to finding the right solution, opinions differ again.
The dispute is very topical: The traffic light coalition would like to make it easier for state investments in the railways in parliament on Thursday (February 22nd).
But the Union warns against another wrong turn.
“This traffic light law paves the way for billions more in tax money for the DB Group, without there being any real control over the use of the funds,” explained parliamentary group vice-president Ulrich Lange (CSU) to
Merkur.de
from
IPPEN.MEDIA
in front of the Bundestag vote.
At the same time, he complained about problems with the upcoming general renovation of several railway lines, for example on the Munich-Salzburg or Nuremberg-Passau sections.
Billions in taxes for the railway: CSU lacks control
What the federal government wants: To be able to continue to give money for tracks and the like without having to pass on costs to the “users” – i.e. rail companies and, as a result, passengers.
But the CDU and CSU fear that under the current structures, payments to Deutsche Bahn will flow indirectly to other parts of the company.
Lange warned: “The traffic light cannot offer any guarantee that the money will actually flow into the rail network.” Especially since the extent of the renovation costs is completely unclear: the traffic light itself considers its own calculations to have “limited resilience,” criticized Lange.
Union parliamentary group vice-president Ulrich Lange sees problems with the railway renovation - also on the Munich-Salzburg route (here the Traunstein train station).
© Montage: Imago/Political-Moments/Rolf Poss/fn
The MP from Bavarian Swabia called for a “fundamental realignment” of the railway – “with a separation of the infrastructure and transport areas”.
DB AG’s job is to “take care of operations with other competitors”.
In other words: to operate trains.
The federal government, on the other hand, must be able to decide for itself in the future which routes will be renovated and built.
Rail renovation is approaching: Is there a risk of a replacement rail service problem between Munich and Salzburg?
There is already anger in the Union about the widely announced general renovation of many railway lines in Germany.
Lange had already complained about “sanitation of lies” at
Merkur.de
in January .
The topic of bridges will be completely ignored in the upcoming renovation of the “Riedbahn” between Frankfurt and Mannheim.
Now he is warning of a rail replacement problem with planned work - also in Bavaria: The traffic light coalition is not prepared to cover the costs for the bus replacement service.
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The affected local transport companies, for example on the Munich-Salzburg and Nuremberg-Passau routes, would be confronted with “enormous challenges” when it comes to the necessary route closures – because of “uncovered costs and open personnel issues”.
It is also still unclear how freight traffic should be redirected in a reasonably time-efficient manner.
With additional travel times of 10 to 14 hours towards the Czech Republic and Poland, “a company will think twice about putting the wagon on the route,” warned Lange.
However, it will still take some time before these rail sections are renovated: According to a plan presented in September, the railway wants to build between Nuremberg and Regensburg from 2026.
Construction is scheduled to begin in 2027 between Rosenheim and Salzburg as well as Munich and Rosenheim.
There is already a schedule for the latter section: “Five months of closure” are planned for new switches, tracks and control technology as well as station modernization.
Split track?
Dispute in the Bundestag about rails and political guidelines
The Union's motion for a resolution will have little chance in the Bundestag - this is shown by the resolution recommendations from the responsible Bundestag committees.
The traffic light factions referred to the founding of “DB InfraGO” at the turn of the year as a “first step”: the company, which is oriented towards the common good, will transfer profits to the federal government in the future.
The CDU and CSU don't go far enough.
According to their application, they want to “completely separate the rail infrastructure from the transport sector” – and move it “to a federally owned, instruction-bound rail infrastructure GmbH”.
In this way, politicians should be able to ensure the “strict implementation of the requirements”.
There is also criticism of this proposal: Ex-Left leader Bernd Riexinger referred to the railways in Austria and Switzerland, which worked perfectly without separating network and operations.
It would be better to have the railway supervisory board also report to the Bundestag - or to convert the entire Deutsche Bahn into a "corporation under public law".
(
fn
)