Berlin The cancellation unexpectedly hit BASF, OMV, Wacker Chemie and other industrial companies in south-eastern Bavaria. And the justification caused confusion: The rail line from Munich via Mühldorf to Burghausen and Freilassing, right through the chemical triangle in south-east Bavaria, is not going to be expanded by the network company of Deutsche Bahn AG by 2030. This was recently announced by DB Netz in the project advisory board for the upgraded route 38 (ABS 38).
Worse still: The commissioning is delayed by years, according to DB Netz. “A specific year cannot be given at the moment.” The reason? A law that the old federal government actually wanted to use to speed up construction: the Preparatory Measures Act.
According to this, politically significant infrastructure projects are not continuously refined in the process, but are defined in advance through hearings and other elements of the classic planning approval process. The Federal Ministry of Transport then decides whether the Bundestag will initiate the project as a law. The building permit by law then makes the planning approval decision superfluous – and the legal action through the administrative courts. Project opponents must contact the Federal Constitutional Court directly.
There is only one problem with the route through south-eastern Bavaria: the project was planned well in accordance with the classic methods. The railway can now suddenly only submit documents that have been created to the approval authority, the Federal Railway Authority (EBA), after a new order in the procedure. Staff shortages at the EBA also cost time.
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According to its own statements, Deutsche Bahn has already lost a year and a half and expects another two and a half years if the project is actually to be legally secure in the law gazette as an individual law. DB Netz intervened in vain with the ministry in order not to have to apply the law, as can be seen from the minutes of the advisory board meeting.
The new law should actually accelerate projects
The bad news not only hits the companies in the region, it also hits the traffic light coalition in Berlin: The law cited by Deutsche Bahn as a brake should serve as a blueprint for the new government. The building rights by law should not only help to soon allow more trains to run towards southern Europe via the Brenner tunnel, but also to “accelerate” important power lines and bridges, as the coalition agreement says. 13 rail and three route projects can be found there. “Further projects will be added.”
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However, the Greens already had the premonition that the law would delay projects. The situation in Bavaria now provides evidence. The economic initiative Chem Delta Bavaria had recently expected “a further significant increase in transport volumes by more than 70 percent in rail freight transport” between 2020 and 2030. With a two-track electrified line, that would not be a problem. But that won’t come for the time being.
“The increase in capacity in rail freight transport is of great importance for the region, in particular because of the increasing transport volumes from chemical production and the increasing recycling economy,” said the oil, gas and chemical industry manufacturer OMV.
The Austrians had only recently invested in track systems. “The delay in the expansion project means a locational disadvantage for the third-largest chemical location in Germany, especially in view of the competition for skilled workers and transport capacities, which is becoming increasingly scarce.”
Wacker Chemie, for example, transports half of its goods at its world’s largest site in Burghausen and the surrounding area by rail, the other half by truck – one million tons each in 2021 alone. Wacker sees “significant potential for further shifts from road to rail”. – if there weren’t the bottlenecks on the single-track and non-electrified part. Electrified rail transport is “essential” for climate-neutral transport logistics.
BASF, Wacker and Co. are pushing for expansion
“Faster transit times and increased transport reliability on the route” was what BASF had hoped for in order to be able to supply its Trostberg site with primary products from the headquarters in Ludwigshafen by rail. The reported delays would now “endanger the supply of our site and our customers”. After all, companies want to grow. At BASF, as at Wacker, the requirement is therefore: The project must be “realised quickly”. Anything else is “unacceptable”.
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The railway sees the federal government as having an obligation, since the project is in the law. The former Federal Government Commissioner for Railways, Enak Ferlemann (CDU), defends the law. The railways have the option of completing the procedure with the regular plan approval or applying the law. “The delays can therefore not be due to the procedure: either there were errors in the preliminary planning or the planning principles were not taken into account.”
Unfortunately, the railways often make planning errors. It makes sense to apply the law at an early stage. “In the specific project, parts were already further in the planning stage.”
CSU Secretary General for Round Table
The railway, on the other hand, also points out that the then Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU) decided in August 2021 to include a railway overpass in Weidenbach in the project. But by then the planning had already been completed. Now the project has to “start from scratch”, as project manager Klaus-Peter Zellmer informed the puzzled members of the advisory board. This also delays electrification.
“The additional bridge does not cause any delays. The local people expressly demand this bridge, otherwise they will sue the project and delay it for years,” countered CSU Secretary General Stephan Mayer. He himself promoted the bridge as a local member of the Bundestag.
In the meantime, Mayer has written to Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) and Bahn boss Richard Lutz and called for a “round table”. The bad news had “hit the whole region like a bomb”. Industry, medium-sized companies, commuters to Munich: they all relied on the expansion that Deutsche Bahn once promised for 2027, then for 2028 and finally for 2030.
Now it must be clarified quickly “how we can jointly accelerate the process”.
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