Marodes rail network: permanent construction site Bahn – crisis could continue for years

Unpunctual trains, Marodes rail network: Deutsche Bahn is in a crisis and Union and SPD, rail customers are tuned in for further difficult years. “It will still take time before the railway will be much more reliable and with more capacity on the rail,” said Isabel Cademartori, spokeswoman for the SPD parliamentary group of the German Press Agency. “To say something else, would be eyewash.”

The federal railway was able to stop the further decay of the dilapidated network with billions of investments last year. But a real trend reversal will take many years, said Union faction vice Ulrich Lange (CSU) of the dpa. “For rail customers, this means that they will still have to expect many construction sites in the coming years. And construction sites mean cuts in punctuality.”

Foreseeable shifts in general renovation

The railway has initiated the so -called general renovation under the old federal government. By the beginning of the 2030s, more than 40 important rail corridors are to be extensively modernized. The start last year on the Riedbahn – between Frankfurt and Mannheim – which was closed for around five months. This is the turn of the turn between Berlin and Hamburg.

But the schedule for further corridors could be postponed in the next few years. The news platform “The Pioneer” quotes from internal documents, according to which renovations planned, especially from 2027, should only be carried out later. The train did not confirm the routes mentioned there. “Concrete stipulations are only hit after coordination with the federal government and the rail and construction industry,” said the group on request.

Nevertheless, the train referred to the coalition agreement of the CDU, CSU and SPD, according to which the renovation of the high -performance corridors should be checked and adapted continuously. The train also has to “take into account the resources of the construction industry and to ensure the stability of detours,” it said. It is therefore quite foreseeable that there are shifts.

Further decline stopped for the time being

In 2024, more than a third of all long -distance trains were unpunctual. This is not only – but also – the overloaded and dilapidated rail network. Even under the previous government, many additional billion euros had been made available to gradually make the infrastructure efficient.

With these investments, the railway was at least partially declining the network of the network last year. The condition of the infrastructure is still depraved, as can be seen from the group’s latest network status report. But for the first time since 2021, he has not worsened.

“It was at least a small success and the necessary steps were in the right direction,” said Cademartori. Nevertheless: “The much more expensive than expected renovation of the Riedbahn has once again clearly shown us that we have to become more efficient in the financing structures in the future.” You can still be in the middle of the reform efforts. It will take a few more years “until we have implemented what we owe the rail customers”.

Infrastructure funds planned

In its coalition agreement, the expected new government has announced a railway infrastructure fund. “It is about an adequate, over-year financing of renovation and new construction projects that does not depend on every single financial year,” said Lange.

The fund should be fed from the income that is achieved by the route prices – these are fees for the use of the rail network, a kind of rail toll – as well as funds from the special fund for the infrastructure. “We are talking about a term of twelve years at the fund and an amount in the three-digit billion dollar sector,” emphasized the Union Group Vice.

Association: the coalition must create clarity in the first 100 days

“The train customers and rail customers expect the right course to be set quickly,” said the managing director of the Interest Association Allianz Pro Schiene, Dirk Flege. “This means that black and red has to clarify in the first 100 days what the fund should look like for the rail infrastructure.” A permanent solution is needed. “It would be absurd to limit the term to that of the special fund,” emphasized Flege.