2023-06-18 15:02:51
Dhe Deutsche Bahn is in the middle of its biggest crisis, in the middle of the most difficult wage negotiations with the railway workers’ union EVG – and in the middle of the biggest reform for around thirty years. For the first time since 1994, the federal government is daring to restructure the group and the financial flows that will shape rail traffic in Germany for the next few decades. A new infrastructure company oriented towards the common good, called Infra Go, is to manage the rail network and train stations. In addition, 189 funding pots are to be exchanged and replaced by two long-term funds.
What is most important for rail customers: A warning strike was averted for the time being, the two parties to the collective bargaining agreement “mutually” adjourned to next week. The employer side sounded more positive than the union: “The goal is in sight,” said DB HR Director Martin Seiler on Friday evening.
Digitization and planning acceleration
Another date is more interesting for the question of when the railways will get the chaos on the rails under control: On Tuesday, the Federal Ministry of Transport will present its first “progress report” on the reform efforts at the state-owned company. With 70 different measures, the federal government wants to get the railway back on track. These are measures “that are absolutely necessary in order to make up for the omissions of the previous decades,” emphasizes the rail commissioner of the federal government Michael Theurer (FDP).
On almost 50 pages, the report gives an initial overview of the status of the proposals made by the Rail Acceleration Commission (BKS). The committee consisted of around 30 representatives from the railway and construction industry as well as from authorities, politics and science and was thus able to provide a particularly broad picture of the list of deficiencies.
This involves a number of smaller proposals for digitization or planning acceleration, which can provide short-term relief, as well as large reform projects. This includes, above all, the creation of the new public-interest-oriented network division, which is to be launched as a public limited company under the umbrella of the DB Group from January 2024.
Optimize financial flows
The restructuring of the financial flows is likely to be even more extensive, which is intended to “enable a more flexible use of funds that can be planned over several years and to reduce the number of funding pots from 189 to “ideally” two separate rail infrastructure funds: on the one hand for financing the existing network and for the expansion and modernization of the network . This measure is currently “in implementation”, according to the report.
At the beginning of June, the federal government initiated the amendment of the “Federal Railway Extension Act” (BSWAG), which is intended to lay the basis for this. This means that the federal government can also invest in the maintenance of the rail network for the first time. This is important for the upcoming general renovation and eliminates false incentives. In addition, the Federal Ministry of Transport is currently examining “several options” on how to optimize financial flows. The Federal Ministry of Finance must also be involved in this. In a transitional period, a change in the service and financing agreement between the railways and the federal government is intended to create more flexibility.
This restructuring of the financial architecture will last well into the next year, and it is still unclear what the funds will be filled with. Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) is currently struggling with his party colleague Finance Minister Christian Lindner for 45 billion euros, which Deutsche Bahn has registered as additional financial requirements for the rail network until 2027. The leaders of the traffic light parties have promised this sum in their thirty-hour coalition committee of the railways – “as far as financially feasible”. If you ask around in politics and those around Deutsche Bahn, hardly anyone believes that a full 45 billion euros will flow in view of the savings efforts.
The federal government is also not relying on short-term remedies through new lines. To this end, the cabinet has already accelerated the approval process, which puts rail projects in “overriding public interest”. That was part of a fiercely contested reform that wanted to achieve something similar for highway projects.
The cabinet has now approved the project and thus handed it over to parliament, but the ministry states in the report: “Large expansion and new construction projects will only create additional capacity from the 2030s onwards. That is why more capacity must be made available on the existing network with fast-acting measures.”
The central element is the general renovation of more than 40 high-speed corridors, which will begin in summer 2024 with the Riedbahn between Frankfurt and Mannheim. The railway estimates the additional costs for the renovation of the Riedbahn alone at up to 300 million euros. A new set of rules under the name “Modern Rail Act” is intended to summarize all legislative measures and is currently planned for the first half of 2024.
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