With 584 million euros, 119 train stations in Hessen are to be modernized by the end of the decade.

When the group has completed this program, more than 90 percent of the train stations in Hesse can be reached step-free, said Ronald Pofalla, the board member responsible for infrastructure at Deutsche Bahn AG, on Friday.

Hessian Transport Minister Tarek Al-Wazir (The Greens) added that three quarters of the 499 train stations in the state would be completely barrier-free.

He spoke of a good day for the state.

"If we want to get more people on the trains and on the rails, traveling by train has to be a convenient alternative to the car." Knut Ringat, the spokesman for the management of the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund, also received praise.

The project is helping to make local public transport even more attractive.

Manfred Koehler

Deputy head of the regional section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and editor-in-chief of the business magazine Metropol.

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As examples of the modernization of train stations, the group cited the Frankfurt Ostbahnhof, which is to be given an elevator, the train station in Kronberg, whose platform roof is being renovated in accordance with historical monuments, and the station in Hattersheim, where the platform is to be raised so that when boarding the S-Bahn trains no longer had to overcome a difference in height.

183 million from the state budget

Of the 584 million euros, 319 million come from federal funds, 29 million from Deutsche Bahn itself, as the group calculated.

The Deutsche Bahn said that the remaining 236 million came from state and municipal funds, Al-Wazir said that 183 million came from the state budget and would be approved under the Hessian Mobility Promotion Act.

Deutsche Bahn board member Pofalla reported that Hesse was "one of the main investment points for rail infrastructure" because the cooperation with the actors in the state works.

Al-Wazir added that “an unbelievable amount” was happening at the moment on the Hesse railway, and that a lot was being built and put into operation.

The minister referred, for example, to the construction of its own tracks for S-Bahn line 6.

The German Federation of Trade Unions dealt with a different topic, but also with the railways. He turned against alleged plans of the future traffic light coalition in the Bundestag to separate the network and operations from one another in the future. This should make competition on the rails easier. Michael Rudolph, chairman of the DGB district Hesse-Thuringia, said the group had to be preserved as a whole. "Breaking up the railway would endanger jobs, the mobility transition and climate protection." What is needed are more investments, not the "breaking up" of transport companies. "That is a grip in the neoliberal moth box."

The regional association of the Pro Bahn association also spoke out against the division into network and operation on Friday.

This will not lead to more traffic on the rails, but will block the traffic turnaround for years.