The transport sector caused around 150 million tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2020 - according to the climate target, this should only be 85 million by 2030.

In order for the mobility turnaround required for this to succeed, more money must flow into public transport.

Local authorities and public transport companies have strongly promoted this at a round table organized by the FAZ in cooperation with the Association of German Transport Companies (VDV) in Berlin.

They hope to be heard by the SPD, Greens and FDP in the ongoing exploratory phase.

In order to underpin the importance of the industry, it had a report drawn up on the economic effects of public transport.

Manfred Schäfers

Business correspondent in Berlin.

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The most important result: buses, trams and trains in this country not only represent a direct added value of 21.7 billion euros.

Public transport creates jobs in construction with its investments.

At the same time, the employees consumed, so that other branches of the economy benefited, explained expert Thorsten Lehr.

Overall, the industry stands for added value of 67.4 billion euros.

This corresponds to the added value of the state of Brandenburg, emphasized the managing director of CONOSCOPE GmbH, which wrote the report with the KOWID association from Leipzig.

In total, the industry is responsible for 930,200 jobs.

"The federal government has to come in"

Oliver Wolff, General Manager of the VDV, emphasized: "It is not enough to just say that we need more money." The traffic change is in competition with many other projects of the next federal government. As examples, he cites the areas of responsibility of the armed forces, care, law and order, and digitization. It is true that large sums of money are involved, but saving a ton of carbon dioxide in residential construction is more expensive than in transport. “It's just worth investing in this field.” The money does not trickle away.

The Cologne transport company also hopes that the report will work. The mobility transition is part of climate policy. “The federal government has to be included,” said chairwoman of the board, Stefanie Haaks. One way of getting people to change trains is to offer tailor-made offers, such as special tickets for ten or a hundred days. A mobility app has also been developed for the Cologne area so that you can find all the offers on your mobile phone: not just buses and trains, but also car sharing and e-scooters. But this application does not extend to Düsseldorf. According to her, a fundamental problem is that companies that are competing do not want to share anything that they have spent money on. Ultimately, it is about sovereignty over the data. This is where the public sector is asked, it has to control the traffic,said Haaks.

Uwe Zimmermann, deputy chief executive of the German Association of Towns and Municipalities, warned against taking too narrow a view of the tasks ahead.

It is not about a cheaper annual ticket, but about better transport options as an alternative to the car.

“Things won't get any easier with the electric car.” He himself says he is not optimistic about the development of the charging infrastructure.

He doesn't see that as many pillars can be put up as needed in the foreseeable future.

The solution is therefore public transport, not the electric car.

Do not hide the freight traffic

Verena Göppert from the German Association of Cities drew the link to the current exploratory talks in Berlin. She expressed the hope that the study would also convince the FDP to increase investments in buses and trains for climate protection. "If you want that, you have to go in with more money," emphasized the deputy chief executive. It is crucial that the population is taken along in a figurative sense. One should not reduce parking space, but create attractive offers in local public transport.

The mobility transition must not ignore freight transport. It has long been a political goal to get more goods off the road and onto the rails. “There was a small dent in rail freight traffic during the pandemic,” reported Harald Kreft, member of the management of the Hamburg Port Authority and also responsible for the port railway. He speaks of a great need for investment. "With the right flow of money, but also with the right framework, I can properly direct traffic."

Of course, the transport association also has the right report to hand.

According to this, 38 billion euros are needed to strengthen rail freight transport by the end of the decade, as the federal government has formulated it as a goal.

That is 17 billion more than an update of the financial planning would result, according to the paper of the VDV and the consulting company Roland Berger.