Because it sounds so absurd, Christian Eichmeier feels compelled to emphasize one thing again.

"This is not a joke, it really happened.".

Eichmeier is Managing Director of Contargo Rhein-Main GmbH, which operates a so-called trimodal transhipment point in Frankfurt's Osthafen, where inland waterway vessels, trains and trucks deliver goods and pick them up from there.

But sometimes containers with goods don't even get there because they got lost on the rails beforehand.

"Nobody knows where they are, and they only appear again weeks later," says Eichmeier.

Daniel Schleidt

Coordinator of the economics department in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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This striking case is just a small example of what Eichmeier and representatives of business associations wanted to draw attention to on Monday: In their eyes, the transport of goods is politically neglected in Germany, "in terms of transport policy, freight transport is unfortunately overshadowed by passenger transport," says Klaus Rohletter, who Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Limburg construction company Albert Weil AG and at the same time Chairman of the Transport Committee in the Association of Hessian Entrepreneurs' Associations.

Demands for the state election

This committee is concerned about the transport infrastructure in Hesse and has therefore formulated demands on state politics before the state elections next year.

This includes, among other things, paying more attention to freight transport by rail.

It's about the containers that have disappeared and the appeal to state politicians to ensure that service providers like DB Cargo become more reliable and faster in the future.

Overall, however, Germany and Hesse are in danger of becoming a "bottleneck in European rail freight transport", warned Jörg Roth, who is responsible for logistics and transport at the German Chemical Industry Association.

The problem: According to Roth, the German rail network has shrunk from 44,600 to 3,800 kilometers since 1995, and many routes have to be shared between passenger and freight traffic.

In Hesse, just four kilometers of new rails have been built since 2014 for the Gateway Gardens S-Bahn connection in Frankfurt – and thus for passenger transport.

"This is too little."

New railway line between Wiesbaden and Bonn required

Roth called for freight, regional and long-distance trains to be “unmixed”.

This requires new separate tracks for freight traffic and passing tracks on the existing routes so that freight and passenger traffic do not slow each other down.

"Currently, just over half of all freight trains are on time," says Roth.

This is completely unacceptable for shippers who, for example, need their raw materials for production processes.

The company representatives are demanding, among other things, the construction of a new railway line for freight traffic between Wiesbaden and Bonn with a system of tunnels through Taunus and Westerwald, the line on the Rhine is no longer sufficient for this.