Thursday, November 4th, 2021
The new boss should lure the SPD
The FDP and the Greens are probably planning to break up the railway
How can there be more competition on the railways? According to the FDP and the Greens, this requires a reorganization of Deutsche Bahn. According to a report, it is essentially about the separation of network and operation. The plan is to be made palatable to the hesitant SPD with a personel.
According to the will of the FDP and the Greens, Deutsche Bahn is facing a fundamental restructuring. As the “Spiegel” reports, both parties are planning to break up the state-owned company. This was negotiated in talks with the SPD to form a joint coalition. The Social Democrats are opposed to the project.
Specifically, according to the report, there are two models: Either the DB Netze area with the rail infrastructure, the stations and the energy supply is to be separated from train operations. The infrastructure sector should then become a public society oriented towards the common good. Regional, long-distance and freight transport remained with the group. In a second variant, the formation of a holding company is discussed, under which network and train operations would be organized. The group would be preserved as a whole.
The FDP and the Greens allegedly want to lure the SPD into re-occupying the top management in the spirit of the Social Democrats around Olaf Scholz. The former chairman of the board of the Berlin transport company, Sigrid Nikutta, will then be the new rail manager. She is currently responsible for freight transport. Above all, the FDP is pushing for more competition on the rails.
Deutsche Bahn is suffering massively from the Corona crisis. With the massive restrictions in the fight against the pandemic, the number of passengers had collapsed and brought the company a billion dollar minus. In the first six months of the current year alone, the deficit amounted to 1.4 billion euros. In addition, the company is sitting on a gigantic mountain of debt. For the timetable change on December 12, the company announced price increases averaging 1.9 percent.