Bahn ignores citizens in the mega project and nobody knows who decides there

Since the start of the big strike this Monday, a railway joke has been making the rounds: No delays in long-distance traffic today! For commuters, the amusement should be limited.

The various citizens’ initiatives for the northern access to the Brenner Pass in the Upper Bavarian districts of Ebersberg and Rosenheim should feel even less like laughing. Because in one Interview with the “BR” After a long radio silence, the federal rail commissioner, Michael Theurer (FDP), made it unmistakably clear where the journey is going.

The parliamentary state secretary in the Federal Ministry of Transport believes that a new line towards the Brenner base tunnel is necessary – both for rail freight traffic and for fast long-distance passenger traffic. Therefore, the north access to the Brenner Pass must be planned for a speed of 230 km/h.

So: New instead of expansion.

The Brenner Base Tunnel is to bring freight traffic onto the rails

The Brenner Base Tunnel, which is being diligently built in Austria and Italy, should be completed in about ten years and will then ensure that more freight traffic is transferred from the road to the rails. The inflow on the German side is around 60 kilometers long and stretches from Grafing east of Munich to Kiefersfelden on the border with Tyrol.

According to its critics, the route called “Limone”, which has already been largely laid down by the railway, cuts through the landscape, soccer fields and fields. Agricultural soil is sealed, as are meadows and forests. And the will of the people is pushed aside.

The railway wants to advance the planning this year and, according to its own statement, optimize the routes, i.e. improve them in detail. “Our planners are on the road in the region and speak personally with the residents,” said a railway spokesman. The results should be incorporated into the planning. Plans for several tunnels were recently announced.

New build or expansion – that is the question

According to a new forecast by the Federal Ministry of Transport, freight traffic in Germany will increase by almost half by the middle of the century. Growth of 54 percent is expected on the road, and freight traffic on the rails is then expected to increase by a third.

According to Bahn, rail freight traffic will increase with the opening of the Brenner Base Tunnel. Only a new building can create the necessary capacities in the long term. Opponents have decidedly different opinions. And the reports they commissioned also confirm that an expansion and modernization of the existing route is sufficient for the number of 400 trains per day forecast by the railways.

Im „BR“-Interview Theurer now asserted that a lot is already being done to get more goods on the rails. At the same time, you have to stop goods trains loitering behind suburban trains and local transport.

Rail officer asks for understanding

That’s why, according to Theurer, more system routes are needed for rail freight transport – and at one point or another the new line as well. Compared to the road, rail has a lot of catching up to do. “And that’s why we’re asking for the public’s understanding and support for upgraded and new lines at this point,” says Theurer.

Theurer promised the opponents of new construction that all arguments would always be intensively dealt with, provided they were serious. It doesn’t matter who is presenting it. And even if citizens might have the impression that not everything from the expert opinion is subsequently implemented, these facts generally play a role in the procedures.

Citizens’ initiative criticizes Bahn

The citizens’ initiative Brenner-Nordzulauf in the district of Ebersberg criticized just a few days ago that the statements made by Deutsche Bahn could not be relied on. It went on to say: “The railway has promised the citizens an objective, open and honest dialogue and trampled on this promise.”

The relationship of trust with the railways and their planning is heavily burdened. “Public participation in dialogue forums was faked and the overwhelming desire of the region was ultimately not taken into account.”

“We are not against the expansion of the burner inlet”

The Ebersberg member of the Bundestag Andreas Lenz emphasized to FOCUS online: “The Federal Transport Route Plan provides for a close-to-stock expansion. From our point of view, the route now selected by the railways does not fulfill the bundling requirements and runs several kilometers away from the existing route.”

Like the citizens’ initiatives, he made it clear: “We are not against the expansion of the Brenner feeder.” It is about two additional tracks to the two existing ones. The so-called Bürgertrasse “Turkis” is close to the existing one and meets the requirements.

“The citizens’ initiatives, but also we politicians on site and in Berlin, were surprised that the railways decided in favor of the ‘Limone’ route, which cuts through the countryside and does not offer any cost advantages compared to the citizens’ route,” emphasized the CSU -Politician. “The criteria of the decision and their evaluation appear highly questionable and chosen arbitrarily.”

Lenz criticizes the diffusion of responsibility at Deutsche Bahn

Die Deutsche Bahn vehemently denies this allegation. Lenz, however, sees a more fundamental problem there: “The track appears like a black box,” says the 41-year-old. “There is often a kind of diffusion of responsibility in which the responsibilities between politics, the federal ministry and the railways are pushed back and forth.”

In order to make responsibilities more transparent, a railway reform is therefore necessary. Because: “Confidence in the railways has been shaken.”

According to Lenz, the participants in the dialogue forum described the meetings as a farce. This bogus participation does not create any acceptance for the railways and their projects. “The hopes of being able to help shape it were not fulfilled,” says Lenz.

Similar allegations to those from the south have already been raised by citizens’ initiatives in northern Germany, where participants in the North Rail Dialogue Forum suspected “citizen fraud” on the Hamburg-Hanover ICE route. Here, too, the course is set for new instead of close-to-existing expansion, which would also have enormous consequences for the residents, especially those in the Seevetal municipality.

“The railway is and will remain a state company”

The author and railway expert Claas Tatje points out to FOCUS online: “The railway is and will remain a state-owned company.” According to him, management there is too often based on the motto: It’s okay!

If in doubt, this would cost taxpayers billions of euros in tax money. “Because it just doesn’t fit and it doesn’t help much if the railways are supposed to act in competition on the one hand, but on the other hand everything is done to repeatedly soften the separation of network and operations,” says Tatje.

On the subject of control, the railway expert says: “There is hardly a more complicated set of figures than the balance sheet of Deutsche Bahn with hundreds of investments and nested shares.” How should one see through this network and control it?

For outsiders, this is an almost impossible task. For a long time, almost everything revolved around the question of whether and how the company should be privatized. “At the latest since the pandemic, the stock exchange railway should become a citizens’ railway,” says Tatje.

If you look at the examples of the northern access road to the Brenner Pass and Hamburg-Hanover, it seems clear that the train wants to increase the speed and reduce journey times, but the public railway is still late. Even on a day like today.