2023-12-25 12:08:37
From the industry’s perspective, the government’s goal for more freight transport by rail is unrealistic. The alliance of the SPD, Greens and FDP aims for a quarter of freight transport to be carried out by rail by 2030. “I think that is illusory,” said Siegfried Russwurm, President of the Federation of German Industries, to the newspapers of the Funke media group. “For this to happen, a third more goods would have to go by rail. A third of a transport volume that will continue to grow.”
Last year, according to data from the Federal Network Agency, 19.8 percent of freight transport was carried out by trains. Russwurm demanded more speed in expanding the railway. “The rail infrastructure is growing in Europe, but we in Germany are massively slowing down,” he said.
Not the claim that “unpunctuality becomes the rule”.
There is not enough capacity and approvals take too long. “When we talk about additional routes or tracks on existing routes, it takes decades from the first idea to the first train.” The upcoming general renovation of the most important rail corridors must be tackled effectively and efficiently.
A comment from Heike Göbel Published/Updated: Recommendations: 50 Manfred Schäfers Published/Updated: Recommendations: 9 Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 111
Russwurm renewed the industry’s criticism of freight rail delays. Companies planned with a certain amount of advance notice and buffers. “But of course it cannot be the claim of a leading economic nation like Germany that tardiness becomes the rule.”
The rail freight transport master plan was launched back in 2017. In the 2021 coalition agreement, the current federal government made up of the SPD, Greens and FDP confirmed the goal of increasing the share of rail in transport in Germany to 25 percent by 2030. This will be “implemented consistently,” said the Federal Ministry of Transport. But this requires massive investments. According to railway boss Richard, the costs could amount to a good 80 billion euros. Part of the funds will also come from the Climate and Transformation Fund (KTF), which the Federal Constitutional Court overturned at the beginning of December. In response to the ruling, the federal government is now also planning to increase the railway’s equity capital.
#Targets #rail #freight #transport #illusory