Economy is looking for a connection to the railways

The federal government has set itself the goal of significantly increasing freight traffic by rail. The share of the transport volume is to increase from around 18 percent at present to 25 percent by 2030. Since the traffic increases from year to year, this amounts to a significant increase. In this way, Deutsche Bahn should make its contribution to achieving the government’s ambitious climate targets.

“An important prerequisite for this is more sidings at companies and in industrial areas,” said the Green politician Gastel. “Once goods land on the truck, they often remain there for hundreds of kilometers because reloading is time-consuming and expensive.”

There are hardly any sidings left

In recent years, the number of sidings at industrial sites and business parks has fallen steadily, albeit at a much slower pace than at the start of the rail reform. With this, since 1994, the Bundesbahn and Reichsbahn have operated as Deutsche Bahn AG.

At that time, according to the network subsidiary DB Netz AG, there were still 11,742 private sidings. Ten years later it was only 4004, another ten years later 2373. Last year the railway reported 2314 connections and thus at least only 15 fewer than in the previous year. Since 2004, the federal government has been funding projects to connect locations to the rail network.

In the last legislative period, associations from industry, trade and logistics had already agreed on a “rail connection charter” in order to shift more goods onto the rails. A new funding regime came into force in March 2021, through which the federal government is funding new, expanded or reactivated connections more extensively than before. The federal government had also expanded the funding catalogue, for example by adding industrial main tracks and increasing the funding rates.

The aim is “not only to shift freight traffic that has previously been handled by road to the more environmentally friendly rail mode of transport, but also to keep existing traffic on the rails,” explained the Eba as the licensing authority. Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) is planning 34 million euros for this in the coming year. At least the downward trend seems to have stopped now.

The federal government now also wants to use the funding program to connect the newly created liquid gas terminals on the coast to the grid. But there is still a lot to be done to actually be able to transport more goods by rail.

The railway itself complains that industrial sites are “often insufficiently connected to the railway infrastructure”. “Sidings are either closed or non-existent,” says DB Netz.

Deutsche Bahn suggests checking the connection to the rail network when building a new commercial area. For this purpose, rail should be taken into account in state development and land use plans and in industrial settlements.

Horsefoot in the subsidy program and a slow approval authority

A corresponding regulation can be found in the coalition agreement. So far, however, it has not been implemented, as Dirk Flege from the Pro-Rail Alliance criticizes. “So far, the Federal Minister of Transport has not shown any enthusiasm for reform. Rail freight transport in particular suffers from this, which continues to lead a shadowy existence compared to trucks,” he said. According to the Pro-Rail Alliance, every second private siding has been closed since 2002.

For the economy, however, there is currently a completely different problem: the catastrophic situation of the network. For a good year now, the network has been overwhelmed, with hundreds of trains being canceled every day because either construction sites or damage to the tracks are paralyzing traffic. Companies inevitably have to transport their goods by truck or barge.

In view of this, the Federation of German Industries felt compelled in the spring to present a catalog of measures for better network management. This included the requirement to plan construction measures in the long term and to announce them in good time so that the shipping industry is informed and can rearrange. That is out of the question today. “The quality and reliability of Deutsche Bahn is currently unacceptable,” said Deutsche Bahn boss Richard Lutz recently in an interview with the Handelsblatt.

At least the federal government is increasing the funds with which it is promoting new sidings from 18 to 34 million euros, thus reaching the level of 2021 again. However, the network of European railways is questioning whether the money can be accessed.

A spokeswoman for the network of European railways said that “the right path had been taken”. “A lack of planning staff, the volatile construction costs, the transport obligations associated with the funding, the high level of unreliability in single-wagon transport and the bottlenecks in the rail network all create uncertainty.”

>> Read here: Six reasons why Deutsche Bahn is failing on its own

As it was said at the German Transport Forum, private investments would be made “only hesitantly”. After all, you can’t just start driving the train like you can on the autobahn. The decisive factor is the capacity in the network. However, there are transport obligations in the funding program and thus a “snake”: If they were not met, companies would have to pay back the money. It’s a six-figure sum.

The effort involved in the process is also high. It is “indescribable what bureaucratic hurdles an entrepreneur has to contend with,” reports a managing director who has already been responsible for processing four applications. The office does not see itself as an enabler, but works according to the motto: “Show me, show me.” An Eba spokesman explained: “The length of the process varies depending on the complexity of the systems requested.”

More: Unpunctual trains, poor quality – Bahn boss Lutz promises: “It will be better in 2023”