The federal government wants to strengthen the railway with more equity – and could thereby unintentionally make rail travel more expensive. The BW transport minister is calling for reform.
Baden-Württemberg’s Transport Minister Winfried Hermann (Greens) is calling for a fundamental reform of rail transport financing. From 2026, regional rail transport will face significant restrictions and higher fares. The background to this is the Announcement by the railway network subsidiary DB InfraGO to increase track access charges.
What are track access charges and why should they be increased?
The track access charges are a type of Rail tollwhich all companies have to pay if they want to use the railway infrastructure. This fee is now set to increase.
The reason for this is that the Federal Government wants to Railway equity by around 4.5 billion euros – in addition to an already planned increase of around 5.9 billion. The railway subsidiary DB InfraGo must pay interest to the federal government on this capital. In order to recoup this higher interest burden, the track access charges are to rise. Federal Ministry of Transport wants to dampen the planned price increase, by massively reducing the return on equity.
Transport Minister calls on the federal government to cover additional costs
The railway company InfraGo has applied for a 23.5 percent increase in the user fee for rail. This would lead to additional costs of almost one billion euros per year nationwide from 2026. If the surcharge is approved by the Federal Network Agency, State Transport Minister Hermann fears major problems for local rail transport.
The states could not cover such high track costs to compensate for the inadequate financing of the railway, Hermann told SWR. The federal government would have to cover the additional costs of the rail network. Hermann proposes an infrastructure fund that would be financed beyond the legislative periods.
