Transport Minister Volker Wissing gives Deutsche Bahn more money and new goals. The FDP politician presented his rail reform at the rail summit in Frankfurt am Main on Friday. DB managers will have to deal with the state rail network from next year no longer make any profits. The focus is on that Common good. In other words: tracks, switches and signals should function reliably and the trains should run as planned.
Officials at the Ministry of Transport are still drawing up precise criteria for this. In the future, they will play a key role in deciding the bonuses of DB board members. For a good railway, Wissing grabs the DB managers for their money.
Equity increase for the railway
“It will get better now,” promised Wissing. The decisive factor here is the renovation of the dilapidated rail network, which is currently causing many delays. Therefor Wissing will provide the DB Group with additional equity capital of 12.5 billion euros over the next four years – financed with loans.
He had previously been involved in the budget negotiations An additional 24 billion euros have already been secured for rail. In addition, the railway’s own contribution is three billion. In total, this will take place until 2027 almost 40 billion euros more for the rail network available, said Wissing.
At the rail summit, Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) emphasized solidarity with the rail and construction industries. © dpa/Lando Hass
DB infrastructure director Berthold Huber was satisfied. Together with the existing plans this would be the case More than 80 billion euros will flow into the rail network by 2027, he emphasized. He had previously estimated the rail renovation backlog at 90 billion euros.
The construction industry is facing a huge program. “The railway builders are on standby”said Martin Steinbrecher, President of the Federal Association of Medium-Sized Building Contractors. However, building up the appropriate capacities definitely takes time.
Five months of complete closure – a total of 40 times
Passengers and the loading industry However, they have to prepare for strenuous years ahead. Bahn wants to be there by 2030 40 main routes will be closed for five months each and replace everything – tracks, ballast, overhead lines and signals. Wissing accepts that parts that have not yet reached their service life will also be replaced. This is supposed to cause permanent disruptions and Prevent recurring construction sites every year.
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In the long term it should increase the reliability of the railway, but by 2030, public transport passengers will be faced with a lot of bus replacement services and long-distance diversions on long-distance transport. On Friday, Wissing announced the exact renovation plan. As already known, it will take place in the summer of 2024 after the final of the European Football Championship Renovation of the Riedbahn between Mannheim and Frankfurt go off. From 2026, six to nine main routes will be closed every year.
This is how the corridor renovation affects Berlin and the Republic
In the second half of 2025, the situation, which has been very vulnerable in recent years Hamburg-Berlin route renewed for five months. Berlin’s most important connection to West Germany will follow at the beginning of 2027 – the ICE route to Lehrte near Hanover. Even in the second half of the year, the ICE will not be able to travel to North Rhine-Westphalia as usual. Then the railway closes the so-called “Ruhr area banana“Cologne-Dortmund-Hamm.
Between Berlin and Munich plant die Bahn no general renovations. However, Berlin rail customers could be hit hard by the closure between Erfurt and Bebra at the end of 2029. This means that the connection to Frankfurt and southwest Germany via Leipzig and Erfurt is blocked for five months.
Many closures in the north and west
In the next few years, railway modernization will focus on the seriously outdated railway lines in the north and west of the Republic, but also on Bayern. In 2025, in addition to Berlin-Hamburg, the important section for international freight traffic to the port of Rotterdam will be Emmerich Oberhausen 73 kilometers long renovated.
It should be in 2026 Main route Hamburg-Hannover (189 km) to the port of the Hanseatic city and Europe’s largest marshalling yard in Maschen. In addition, closures are imminent on five other important connections: Hagen-Wuppertal-Cologne (65 km), Troisdorf-Koblenz (89 km), Koblenz-Wiesbaden (93 km), Nürnberg-Regensburg (88 km) and Obertraubling-Passau (115km). Seven general renovations are planned for 2027, including the Lehrte-Berlin ICE runway (227 km), which started in 1998, the Main-Neckar Railway from Frankfurt/Main to Heidelberg (92 km) and the important freight routes Munich-Rosenheim (55 km) towards Brenner and Rosenheim-Salzburg.
There are even eight general renovations in the DB plan for 2028, including the central north-west connection Bremen-Hamburg (181 km). Seven major projects are to follow in 2029, only then will the modernization of the 90 km long existing line begin Filstalbahn Stuttgart-Ulm A project is again planned in the southwest via the Swabian Alb. The last nine major construction sites are listed for 2030, including expansion and conversion of the Rheinbahn Mannheim-Karlsruhe (75 km) and the Ulm-Augsburg section (92 km).
Skepticism was also heard at the rail summit. “I fear that after five months of total closure, people have switched to cars and won’t come back“, said Kerstin Haarmann, President of the German Transport Club. There is only cautious optimism, said Uta Maria Pfeiffer from the BDI industry association. This will be a big challenge for the loading companies.
Structural reform at the railway
“We are separating the main arteries,” emphasized Wissing. That hurts a little. No patient likes to undergo such an operation. “But afterwards people are grateful to their doctor because there is no longer any danger of collapsing at any time.“
The Freight Railways Association was happy to accept the image and called for more bypasses: “Without efficient diversion routes, the full closure endangers industrial production and the federal government’s goals for more rail freight traffic,” said managing director Peter Westenberger.
“It is now up to us to roll up our sleeves together with the construction industry,” said Bahnchef Richard Lutz. The enormous construction workload will also challenge travelers and freight transport companies. “A high-performance transport concept” with diversion routes is being developed with affected railway companies and the authorities responsible for local transport. The aim is Restrictions for travelers and freight traffic during the construction period should be kept “as low as possible”.
The corridor renovation should be implemented from the turn of the year the new rail network operator InfraGO. Join a stock corporation oriented toward the common good the railway subsidiary DB Netz, which was previously responsible, and DB Station & Service, which was responsible for the train stations. InfraGO will be part of Deutsche Bahn AG, but will operate largely independently of the group’s top management. In this way, the traffic light wants to ensure that the many billions from the federal government flow into the rail network and not into the DB’s commercial rides.
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He’s expecting now “from the railway that it keeps its promises and implements the renovation as quickly as necessary,” Wissing said. With the new infrastructure company oriented towards the common good, “the renovation process will be made transparent and closely monitored”.
It is scheduled to start on January 1, 2024. The construction and railway industry calls on Wissing to take advantage of the opportunity To provide capacities and make the railway an economic stimulus program for Germany as a business location. There is now planning security for this.
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