Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing would like to have the key demands of the "Rail Acceleration Commission" quickly approved by the federal government in order to quickly initiate solutions for the overloaded rail network in Germany.

The FDP politician asserted this on Tuesday when the advisory committee handed over the final report.

Important cornerstones of the report are to be decided by the cabinet this week.

Corinna Budras

Business correspondent in Berlin.

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He wants to use the "tailwind" from work and achieve a kind of self-commitment by the federal government.

In its final report, the commission, with around 30 representatives from politics, the railway and construction industry as well as from authorities and science, listed 70 specific recommendations for action, which are now to be examined and implemented promptly.

Political hiccups with the Greens

With the desired preliminary determination by the federal government, Wissing is likely to aim primarily at the Green coalition partner, which represents fundamentally different views than the FDP in some aspects of planning acceleration.

The political debate revolves around the question of whether road construction should also benefit from more efficient structures or whether they should only focus on infrastructure projects that serve climate protection.

In the opinion of the traffic light coalition, in addition to the expansion of wind energy, this also includes rail, as Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke (Greens) recently emphasized.

"If anyone here still thinks we have time to play games against each other, they have not recognized the seriousness of the situation on the rails," said Wissing, referring to the dispute.

However, pressure also came from the commission itself: "Now Volker Wissing has to submit, and quickly," demanded Kerstin Haarmann, national chairwoman of the ecological traffic club VCD

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“

The schedule for the Ministry of Transport and the Bundestag has been defined.

There are no more excuses.”

Almost 200 different funding pots

The list presented by the Acceleration Commission less than six months after it was appointed is long.

It includes both small measures that can be implemented quickly and fundamental reforms to the rail financing system.

Instead of 190 different funding pots, only two funds should be used in the future for the maintenance and new construction of the rail network, as the chairman of the relevant working group, Tobias Heinemann, emphasized.

Unlike before, the money should also be able to be used over several years.

The budgetary principle that has been in force up to now, on the other hand, stipulates that the funds made available must be used within the calendar year.

"The measures should not be questioned every year," said Heinemann, who is also President of the Alliance for Fair Competition in Rail Passenger Transport, Mofair.

"The times when money could be made from infrastructure are over."

Heinemann referred to another major project to convert Deutsche Bahn.

In 2024, a "common good-oriented" infrastructure company is to be created, in which the central subsidiaries of Deutsche Bahn are to be bundled.

The Pro-Rail Alliance also brought up another source of funding, which the Acceleration Commission has been concerned with: “If then – as planned by the federal government – ​​in just over a year, revenue from the truck toll can also flow into the railways, then it will we have a solid basis for the modernization of the rail network," said Managing Director Dirk Flege, who also worked on the commission.

Minister of Transport Wissing did not want to decide whether this conversion will actually be implemented in all its consequences - also because he does not have to decide this alone.

He expressed "sympathy" for this proposal, which had already been discussed in advance with Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP).

However, the budget politicians in the Bundestag would also have a say in this.

However, he agreed with Lindner that the necessary financial resources had to be made available.

He did not give a specific number, because the really big costs would only be incurred from 2024 onwards.

Then the general renovation will start, with which Deutsche Bahn wants to gradually renew the main traffic arteries of its network - sometimes with the complete closure of the affected routes.

In addition to the major reforms, there are a number of smaller measures in the package that may soon bring relief.

The capacities on the rails could be better used if their management is consistently digitized.

This could, for example, be used to move shunting operations from the main hubs in Frankfurt to places with less traffic.

With the help of such a "Deutschlandtakt machine" the timetable could then be optimized in such a way that more traffic can be routed via the rails - even without the network expansion, which would take much longer.

Is the “modern rail law” coming now?

The Commission made it clear that there was still room for improvement when it came to building new tracks.

There are examples of large machines that, even after 18 months, have still not been approved by the responsible European authority and are standing around uselessly, explained Commission Chairman and Parliamentary State Secretary Michael Theurer (FDP).

The Commission spoke out in favor of a new set of rules entitled "Modern Rail Act" which would enable central changes to the norm to be initiated quickly.

This also includes the legal stipulation that infrastructure projects must be given priority in the future, and processes for land use and spatial planning should be significantly simplified.