Travel through Germany for 49 euros or have a reliable train service in the long term? Finance Minister Lindner says: You have to decide. There are completely different proposals coming from Thuringia.
The railway urgently needs money: Finance Minister Christian Lindner has therefore reignited the debate about a price increase for the Deutschlandticket. “At some point, politicians will have to decide whether we want to invest in rail or whether the price should remain at 49 euros,” Lindner told “Welt am Sonntag”.
There has been a long-standing dispute over the price of the Deutschlandticket. The federal and state governments each subsidize the service with 1.5 billion euros per year. The federal and state governments only guarantee the price for this year. The ticket could therefore become more expensive for users as early as 2025.
“Overpriced ticket” for broken tracks?
The SPD is confronting its liberal coalition partner: The Deutschlandticket is an “absolutely successful project,” said SPD parliamentary group vice-chair Detlef Müller to the dpa. “An important factor for this success is the plannability and price stability of the offer. Neither of these must be put up for discussion in the context of the budget negotiations.”
Union parliamentary group vice-chairman Ulrich Lange sees his fears confirmed that the funding for “the extremely cheap nationwide public transport ticket” is now lacking in the rail infrastructure. “It is of no use at all to provide a ticket if the rails are broken and the trains are not running,” said the opposition politician.
The railway needs many billions
The upcoming general renovation of the railway will require billions in investments from the cash-strapped federal government. By 2030, the company wants to completely renovate 40 heavily used routes in order to become more punctual and reliable again. Reducing the subsidy for the Deutschlandticket would therefore be just a drop in the ocean.
Thuringia’s Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow therefore has other ideas: In order to modernize the railway sustainably, he demands in the “Spiegel”: “At least 100 billion euros must be mobilized over ten years to modernize the core substance of the railway.” When asked whether he would call for a special fund like the one for the Bundeswehr, he said: “That would be my approach, yes. But it should be a solution independent of the federal budget.”
A few months ago, Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) had already proposed an infrastructure fund to finance the railways, in which financial resources for railways, roads and waterways would be pooled for several years. Private investors would also be involved. However, this plan has not yet been implemented.
Higher prices and fewer connections are threatened
In view of the unclear financing conditions, Ramelow criticized the impending thinning of the route network, which the “Spiegel” newspaper reported on this week. Instead of more train traffic, Deutsche Bahn is therefore facing higher ticket prices and fewer connections on routes that are not in high demand. According to the state-owned company, the reason for this is the planned increases in track access charges, which could make long-distance train travel significantly more expensive from 2025 onwards. Deutsche Bahn also emphasized, however, that there are “currently no concrete plans to cancel” the connections mentioned in the “Spiegel”.
Source: Stern
