“This is a super class that we get extra money from a special fund,” Lutz told the German press. “This is great progress, and the whole sector, and, of course, also the clients of the passenger and freight transport are grateful to the government for the important signal“ by rail ”.
About 17 billion euros are absent
However, money is still not enough. The main requirement of additional funds by 2029 to carry out the necessary repair work and to establish the basis for digitizing the railway network is about 45 billion euros. “For the budget years of 2025 and 2026, which will be decided by Bundestag in the next few months, we are quite close to these needs,” the train manager said.
But then additional needs increase. About 17 billion euros were missing by 2029. “The next few months and years will show whether this gap in financing can be closed.”
The Cabinet of Ministers decided last week that the railway should receive about 107 billion euros for investment in infrastructure by 2029 and, therefore, was much more intended than in the budget of the old federal government. According to DPA, most of the amount, about 81 billion euros, comes from a special fund financed by the federal government.
Household funds were introduced into a special fund
Nevertheless, this also includes funds in the amount of about 38 billion euros, which are previously evaluated in the main budget of the federal government and should be prompted to special wealth. There are also planned funds, which in the next few years were supposed to enter the train as capital – about 14 billion euros.
If you expect these amounts, the railway will come from a special fund by 2029 for additives of 29 billion euros. According to Lutz, she will make about 45 billion euros.
“In the end, of course, it is the federal and parliament that determines how much money should be entered in the railway in Germany, and thus significantly affect how the power, stability and quality of railway infrastructure will develop,” the general director said. Based on the final decisions, the train and the federal government will do everything possible to establish the right priorities and improve the operational situation for passengers and clients. “The preservation and updating of the existing infrastructure always goes to a new and expanding,” said Lutz.
General reconstruction switches to 2035
They suffer from a poor state of railway infrastructure, which have been neglected for decades. Once again, more than a third of all trains with long distances were at the end of the first half of the year. According to the railway, about 80 percent of which are associated with problems with the infrastructure and the necessary construction sites.
To get the problem under control, the train will repair dozens of busy routes that are of central importance for the national railway traffic in the next few years. But recently it became known that the schedule for this so -called general general reconstruction will be canceled for four years. The last route should not be modernized until 2035, and not until 2031.
The federal group is currently discussing new graphs with the industry and politics. “We assume that infrago of the database can say goodbye to the coordinated concept with the federal government in the third quarter,” said Lutz railway director. “The previous schedule, which also coordinated with the federal government and industry, was ambitious, without question. Of course, everyone knew what we were doing a lot from the point of view of reconstruction, especially in 2028. ”
The voltage between driving and construction
Since the relevant corridors are completely blocked for several months during the repair, passengers and cargo companies should accept the replacement of traffic and long workarounds. In particular, the trade union, but also competitors in freight transport, have always criticized whether the general reconstruction could be carried out in the early 2030s. The agreement on the coalition of the new government says that the schedule is constantly checked.
“Between driving and buildings there remains the voltage area, which should be balanced and dissolved both in the multi -storey reconstruction program and in the management of the construction site,” Lutz emphasized. “An expanded schedule, of course, is a good thing in terms of tolerance in the market. However, one should not incorrectly assess the fact that the desired target state in which we have a completely renovated and powerful infrastructure, and then moving several years ago, and the operational risks of intervention -ure systems that can be replaced and replaced later, stay longer. ”
