Berlin Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) will probably present an unpleasant bill at the government meeting of the traffic light coalition in early March. Deutsche Bahn has drawn up a “general inventory”, as Infrastructure Director Berthold Huber calls it, and sent a network status report to the ministry. According to information from the Handelsblatt, the more than 300,000 systems in the network were evaluated in terms of their condition.
As on a certificate, there are condition notes for tracks, switches, signal boxes, bridges or level crossings. What, according to railway insiders, has always been well received in recent years, has now mostly received bad marks. They talk about a “drama” at the railway.
The sum for the network renovation could therefore even exceed the special assets of the Bundeswehr. “100 billion euros will not be enough,” says the Deutsche Bahn group.
The federal government has pumped billions into the company for years, but apparently did not care what happened to the money. From 2009 to 2019 alone, 30 billion euros flowed into the network for replacement investments. By 2030 it will even be 63 billion – as of today.
The Federal Court of Auditors has long since criticized the existing financial system as “non-transparent”. President Kay Scheller complained that the federal government had “abandoned its constitutional mandate”. And that is: Orientation towards the common good.
Wissing’s officials no longer trust the figures from the railways
The SPD, Greens and FDP put great hope in the train. They want twice as many people to travel by train in 2030 and companies to transport their goods 60 to 70 percent more frequently than today over the network. For this, the heavily indebted railway must finally get its network in good shape.
Subsidiaries of Deutsche Bahn AG should therefore – as agreed in the coalition agreement – merge into a kind of rail GmbH (working title: “Infra-Go”) and from next year work “oriented towards the common good”. The goal is no more dilapidated rail network, no more railway company that fools its owners.
Minister Wissing has also known for a few days who will help him to find the best structure for a new rail network company: the merger experts from Götz Partners have been awarded the contract for 6.4 million euros. The experts from Hamburg’s SCI Verkehr will provide the necessary industry expertise.
A refurbishment of the core railway network alone would cost 50 billion euros.
(Photo: dpa)
The reorganization of network operations is one thing. But it doesn’t automatically bring more money into the system. Wissing’s officials are currently checking the status report. They don’t trust the railway numbers.
But it seems clear that more money needs to be put into the system. But how? Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner would either have to take on new debts – an absurdity for the FDP leader – or do without elsewhere. Or he opens up new sources of income.
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“The 2024 budget year will be a particularly difficult one and will certainly be a sticking point at the government meeting,” said SPD parliamentary group leader Detlef Müller. “Many additional billions are needed for the rail infrastructure, which will be a tough struggle.” After all, there are other “necessities”, such as pensions, hospital financing and basic child security.
Not to mention the waterways and highways, for which there is also a lack of money. For all planned new construction and expansion projects alone, inflation and rising construction costs have torn a hole of more than 60 billion euros, as the ministry itself has determined.
According to government circles, 50 billion euros would be needed to rehabilitate the core rail network – i.e. all heavily traveled routes and connections between major cities – and to bring more traffic onto the rails across the board with smaller measures. Digitization, alternative routes and new lines are not even included.
A panel of experts in the Ministry has recommended financing the railway from two funds in the future. That’s where the billions are supposed to flow that have so far been devoured from the federal budget and found their way into the company. Eisenbahn GmbH is to use one fund to maintain and modernize the network, and the other to expand the network.
Fresh money should flow from the truck toll
In order to fill up the pots, the experts refer to the new climate toll for trucks. Minister Wissing wants to collect them from the end of the year. It could be up to seven billion euros. Part of it should flow into the rail network, which pleases the Greens. He could make a corresponding suggestion during the exam.
However, Wissing must also convince his own party. The Liberals insist that each mode of transport continues to be self-financing. At most, 20 percent of the truck climate toll should therefore flow into the railways. The railway should refrain from new construction projects and concentrate on the renovation of the network, it said.
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Money should also flow from the sale of the DB Schenker logistics division. Deutsche Bahn is to shed its top profit-maker and focus on its core business, rail transport in Germany and Europe. The sales process is already underway. There is talk of a two-digit billion amount.
“The funds from the sale should remain in DB AG for debt repayment and possible investments in infrastructure and digitization,” says a report by the ministry. However, here too, FDP MPs insist on first and foremost paying off Deutsche Bahn debts so that Deutsche Bahn’s financing costs do not increase. For the federal government, the dividend will be canceled in the future with the sale.
Many questions still to be answered
Coalition circles warn that Deutsche Bahn will have to use its money “more precisely” in the future. Experts in the industry also warn that it is impossible for the new network company to be entered in the commercial register this year, even if the railways demand this.
Too many questions have to be clarified, including those after more competition on the Internet. They don’t want to talk about that at Bahn, but refer to the next meeting of the Supervisory Board at the end of March. Until then, the federal government must explain how much money it wants to transfer to the company in the future.
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