Germany steps aboard
An example from Europe : prioritizing public transportation
Germany puts rail first in €500bn investment spree
Here’s the opening on an article this week in the Financial Times.
State-owned Deutsche Bahn expected to receive €10.5bn this year from newly established infrastructure fund The poor state of the rail network in Germany has become a symbol for the under-investment weighing on its economy
Germany plans to make its faulty railway network its first priority as it seeks to fast-track spending from its €500bn infrastructure fund designed to lift Europe’s largest economy out of stagnation. Vice-chancellor and finance minister Lars Klingbeil wants to inject up to €10.5bn into the country’s train links this year, giving state-owned Deutsche Bahn the lion’s share of €22bn of infrastructure investments earmarked for 2025, according to people with knowledge of the plans….After 2025, the sums put towards infrastructure are expected to increase to as much as €35bn a year until 2029. The plan is part of a series of measures the coalition government led by Chancellor Friedrich Merz wants to adopt this month, with the expectation they will be approved by both houses of parliament in September.
In the USA
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, signed into law under President Biden, was aimed in part at climate-change mitigation. Nonetheless, it remained focused on cars, roads, and highways. The rail funding was for both freight and passenger trains. The entire package was, on the whole, business as usual in the US, while other countries are moving into the future.
The Train Campaign, which hosts the Train Time media project, was inspired by people who longed to see passenger rail service in the US to rival the services they had enjoyed elsewhere in the world. That vision remains strong today!
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