On 23 February, Germany will be heading to the polls to elect a new parliament, from which a government will then be formed. A new legislature means new opportunities, and German rail freight is not sitting still to make its voice heard: An alliance of eight rail associations has put together a document formulating their demands to the future government.
“The federal government has formulated ambitious modal shift targets for rail transport: increasing the market share in rail freight transport to 25 per cent and doubling passenger transport performance by the target year 2030”, the associations say in a unified appeal.
In order to achieve that, they propose measures in three areas: financing, infrastructure usage charges and specific measures to advance both freight and passenger transportation.
Financing
The associations argue that long-term, consistent financing is necessary to achieve positive results. They propose four concrete measures:
- A preventative replacement investment and maintenance strategy with financial compensation for disruption-affected operators
- A long-term federal strategy for the expansion and development of the rail network on the basis of the already existing Deutschlandtakt
- A realistic and reliable implementation and financing strategy for the modernisation of control and safety technology with ETCS and digital interlockings
- Electrification, as well as modernisation of the regional rail networks
Track access charges
A thorn in the side of German rail are the infamous track access charges (TAC), which recently grew by 16 per cent and stand to grow by an additional 35 per cent by December 2025. The associations lament the equity increases of DB InfraGO, which enable it to increase TACs further. Freight and long-distance passenger rail are disproportionately affected, because short-distance passenger rail and legally protected from too high TAC increases.
The associations “are therefore calling on the legislator to immediately adapt the legal framework for calculating infrastructure charges in the federally owned network to the requirements of the market.” Specifically, they refer to the commonly used marginal cost pricing as a better system, and want TAC subsidies to continue until a new legal framework is in place.
Measures for rail freight
The alliance of associations behind the wishlist say that there is still a lot of potential for rail freight in Germany, and that market parties want to continue investing in its expansion. “In addition to an efficient infrastructure, they also need planning security and fair intermodal competitive conditions in order to be able to carry out their own commercial transport operations”, the alliance says. It proposes three measures to make that possible:
- Making the central axes of the rail network more efficient in the short term and speeding up the provision of additional passing, stabling and loading tracks with a usable length of at least 740 meters
- Creating more access points to the rail network for freight transport and expand existing ones (such as sidings and loading points)
- Supporting innovations, such as the automation of train operations in freight transport and DAC, as well as compensating for the considerable implementation costs
For passenger rail, the associations are calling for stronger public investment, a more competitive market and a support regulatory framework with a successful implementation of the so-called Deutschlandtakt.