Deutsche Bahn's planned clear-cutting of expansion and new construction has political repercussions. SPIEGEL revealed an internal list of projects threatened by the budget ruling.
Chairman of transport committee Udo Schiefner (SPD) wrote an incendiary letter to railway boss Richard Lutz and infrastructure director Berthold Huber. The news of the austerity plans "shocked him badly - especially after the budget week that had just ended in the German Bundestag and the resolutions passed there," says the letter.