Deutsche Bahn: Union questions the general renovation of the rail network

With large -scale renovations of important routes, Deutsche Bahn promises more punctuality to its passengers – but the Union is not convinced and wants to check the procedure in the event of an election victory. A fundamental renovation of the network was long overdue, the deputy group leader Ulrich Lange (CSU) said on request. “However, the so-called general renovations, which the DB wants to carry out on 41 selected routes, are no more than cheating renovations.”

Buildings such as bridges, for whose renovation an elaborate planning approval procedure was necessary, were left out. “Instead, a bit of overhead lines, soft and signal boxes are laboratories,” criticized Lange. This will result in the routes would have to be tackled again in a few years.

“If we rule again after the Bundestag election, we will look at each of the planned renovations individually and decide what is necessary and sensible,” emphasized Lange. “It is clear to us that there will be no further fashion packs here either.”

The general renovation is a project by Deutsche Bahn that had been conceived under Transport Minister Volker Wissing (independent). In total, more than 40 busy route corridors are to be gradually modernized in the next few years and the reliability and punctuality in rail traffic are to be restored.

For this, the routes are fully blocked for several months. The tracks, soft, signal boxes, top lines and train stations are to be completely renewed in the meantime. In addition, the routes are to be largely upgraded digitally.

Last year the Riedbahn between Frankfurt and Mannheim was on. “The Riedbahn pilot project has shown that our concept of general renovation works: We were able to bundle work that otherwise took years and had a major impact on punctuality,” said the train in response to criticism. “At the same time, we learned a lot for the further renovation course.” Work on the second corridor between Berlin and Hamburg begins in August of this year.

The dilapidated infrastructure applies to frequent delays, especially in long -distance transport. Last year the punctuality rate had fallen to the lowest value in at least 20 years. More than every third long -distance train arrived late. The renovations cost a lot of money. Around 2.3 billion euros are estimated for the Hamburg-Berlin route alone. By no means all projects are financed.

In order to secure investments in the long term, Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing had brought an infrastructure fund into play months ago, from which rail and road projects are to be financed. Such a fund solution also rejects for a long time. “We do not consider it expedient that all modes of transport can be used from a pot, as this does not meet the financing needs of each individual and we do not want to play out the mode of transport against each other,” he said to the dpa news agency.

“In our view, the financing of the entire transport infrastructure must be made from one cast and regulated more clearly.” The Union will introduce closed financing cycles for every mode of transport. This would not be possible to use money from street toll revenue for investments in the rail, said the Vice Group leader. “In the future, we want to organize financing with a triad of tax financing, user financing and private capital (…).”

Detlef Müller, deputy SPD parliamentary group leader and himself a locomotive leader: “The fact that the Union calls the urgently needed corridor renovation in question is irresponsible and endangers the performance and future viability of our infrastructure.” In order to be able to tackle the failures of the past decades in the infrastructure, reliability “and no 180-degree turns that only serve political profiling,” said Müller. “This ensures uncertainty in the rail and construction industry that need planning security to build up appropriate capacities.”