2024-03-11 14:01:22
Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing has big plans for Deutsche Bahn. He has laboriously scraped together additional billions to enable the urgent general renovation of the rail network – and yet the trains are still standing still. In times of “wave strikes” by the train drivers’ union GDL, the unreliability of the railway reaches unimagined dimensions. Even as the owner’s representative, the FDP minister cannot do much more for the time being than to send words of warning to the collective bargaining parties and, above all, to the GDL. The question of whether the country can still afford to waive strike rules in the critical infrastructure in the future will probably only be discussed seriously politically – if at all – after this round of rail collective bargaining has been concluded.
Meanwhile, the sixth rail strike symbolizes the standstill in transport policy – an area that finally needs movement. A whole series of legislative proposals from Wissing’s house were blocked for a long time, or still are. Most recently, the “Federal Rail Infrastructure Expansion Act” suffered this fate.
Permanent feud between the federal and state governments
It contains nothing less than the legal basis for financing the general renovation, which is scheduled to begin in July and will shape rail transport in the next decade. Preparations have been going on for a year and a half, but lawmakers are taking their time. At first the traffic light factions were at odds, now the states want to call the mediation committee. Once again it’s about money, a constant reason for the ongoing feud between the federal and state governments in public transport.
The list goes on: Unnecessary delays had previously held up the law to speed up planning, as had the truck toll. It only came into force in December and is intended to bring billions into the budget for the general renovation of the railways. The traffic light factions in the Bundestag also struggled with these laws for months, only to pass them without making any changes.
The fate of the road traffic law is particularly tragic: municipalities in Germany should be given more leeway in setting up 30 km/h zones, cycle paths, bus and electric car lanes. Many people waited a long time for this, but the project died a quiet death. There have so far been no attempts to revive the matter through the mediation committee. The Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing is still outraged by the federal states’ blockade because it was not motivated by content, but primarily by political reasons: The CDU-led states have found a new means of pressure here. Since the failure, everyone has been waiting for someone to make a move, because somehow they would like to have the law.
Playground for ideological trench warfare
Even the Deutschlandticket fits into this series. The 49 euro discount for public transport was implemented with rare consensus, but has since been talked about afterwards. To make matters worse, there are also new applications for the funding of hydrogen projects on the shelf: Wissing’s ministry has developed an irritating life of its own under his CSU predecessor Andreas Scheuer. In the current affair about possible favoritism, employees apparently even seem to be resisting instructions from the new ministry management.
All of this clouds the balance sheet of the pragmatist Wissing, who has been in charge of a ministry for more than two years that is supposed to repair the numerous failures of the past with incredible sums of billions and at the same time has to put a stop to waste. This is a balancing act of its own kind, because the rail network is considered to be hopelessly underfinanced, while the railway is at the same time a bottomless pit.
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Wissing has initiated many important projects, but too often he is unable to get them over the finish line quickly and quietly. However, at the moment he seems to be lacking a skill for which he has often been praised: his strength as a political bridge builder.
Instead, the disputes highlight how transport policy is currently understood: as a playing field for ideological trench warfare in which particular groups insist on maximum demands. The train drivers are just one example of this; the Greens are also stubbornly sticking to their vision of nationwide 30 km/h zones, a state-mandated electric car-only policy and a stop to the expansion of motorways. But transport policy depends on rapid balance in all areas if it is to succeed in combining climate protection and mobility interests in an industrial country in the heart of Europe. Wissing needs more allies for this feat.
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