Saturday, November 6th, 2021
“Selling silverware”
Abrasion strictly against railway smashing
Scheuer has been Minister of Transport for four years. The CSU politician does not deny the need for reform at Deutsche Bahn. His own reform plans were only thwarted by Corona. Nevertheless, he cannot win any good hair from the ideas of splitting up the FDP and the Greens.
While the FDP and the Greens are thinking about breaking up the Deutsche Bahn at the traffic light coalition negotiations, the acting Federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer considers the proposal to be a bad idea. In an interview with the newspapers of the Funke media group, the CSU politician warned against the liquidation of the state company. “Anyone who wants to break up the railway now and thus weaken it in international competition is endangering the company and the interests of our country,” said Scheuer, according to the report.
This week, the FDP and the Greens had spoken out in favor of selling the profitable, internationally operating logistics subsidiary DB Schenker, also in order to pay off the billions in debts of the railways. Scheuer could not gain anything from these plans either: “The international orientation of a global corporation and of course the concentration on the national core business is the right future concept for the railway. Fundamental reform yes, break-up no.”
“I planned to reform myself, then Corona came”
A fundamental reform of the Deutsche Bahn AG was “unquestionably necessary”, the transport minister admitted to the Funke newspapers and made a number of weak points: companies would block each other, the organization chart of the group was much too broad. He himself had already considered converting the railway. “I planned such a reform, only then did Corona come,” said Scheuer. After the pandemic, there would have to be a cash drop and reform would have to be initiated.
After green and liberal transport politicians were hoping for more competition on the network, more punctual trains and better timing from the split, Scheuer, after four years in the office of transport minister, admitted that there was a lot of catching up to do in this area. “The concentration on the national core business with more traffic performance, service, punctuality and quality is beyond question,” said the CSU politician. “But that requires a financial basis. Breaking it up would massively weaken it – a sale of DB Schenker would be a sale of German silverware.” Without the internationally operating logisticians at DB Schenker and DB Cargo, the supply chains would also have been broken in the pandemic, Scheuer warned in an interview with the newspapers: “In Germany, the conveyor belts would have stood still.”
Pro Bahn advocates separation of network and operation
Deutsche Bahn has not yet commented on the plans of the FDP and the Greens. Within the traffic light coalition, the SPD is a strict opponent of the idea of breaking up. Passenger representatives, on the other hand, rate the split as positive. Karl-Peter Naumann from the Pro Bahn passenger association told the editorial network in Germany: “For us as passengers, it is important to separate the economic tasks and ticket sales from the business and traffic tasks. The infrastructure is part of public services and spatial planning as well Development of regions and must not have the primary task of generating profits. “
A separation is practicable, explained Naumann, because even today non-DB companies can drive without problems on the tracks of the DB, and the DB drives on tracks that do not belong to it. The decisive factor, however, is that more money is invested in the network. In order to achieve the climate change, the current expenditure of 88 euros per inhabitant and year for the rail network will be increased significantly, according to Naumann. Switzerland spends more than four times as much.