In an open letter, associations with over 5,000 members, companies and numerous large and small companies, such as DAX-listed SAP and IKEA retailer Ingka Group, are calling on the current and next German government to create the conditions for the reliable expansion, modernisation and renovation of the rail network. “As business travellers, we want to improve our carbon footprint. We are prepared to travel by train instead of plane, because rail is 7.7 times more climate-friendly than air travel for national connections,” the organisations state in the letter. However, predictability and reliability are crucial for business travellers and in the year of the UEFA European Championship 2024, less than two thirds of Deutsche Bahn’s long-distance trains were on time.
The letter is addressed to Members of Parliament from the transport and budget committees. It calls on the current and next federal government to provide sufficient funds in the 2025 federal budget for the modernisation, digitalisation and expansion of the rail network, to simplify and secure the long-term financing of the railways by introducing a rolling rail fund over the course of several years and to ensure that rail tolls are significantly reduced and not increased.
“The stakes are often too high to deal with a large amount of uncertainty”, says Hugo Houppermans, Director of Anders Reizen, the Dutch business travellers coalition of 70 multinational corporations. “Many of the organisations in our coalition prioritise train over plane. Especially the trains from Amsterdam to London and Paris are usually fully booked. But the appetite to use trains running to and through Germany has been falling because of unreliability. This damages the climate and business. We need a top-notch German rail system and a stronger European coordination of rail infrastructure and cross-border trains.”
Jacob Rohm, Senior Policy Advisor for Climate-neutral Mobility at Germanwatch, says: “The German investment backlog in the rail network is slowing down European business travellers and their switch to climate-friendly rail travel. The current insecurity following the end of the German government shows just how important it is to resolve this backlog with reliable and efficient funding flows through a well-funded rail infrastructure fund. This is a key task for this and the next federal government. In the short term, funding for the general overhaul of central rail routes must also be secured for 2025”.
The letter has been signed by associations, companies and organisations at EU level and various member states, including the European Passenger Federation, the Anders Reizen coalition of 70 multinational corporations in the Netherlands, DAX-listed company SAP, IKEA retailer Ingka Group, medium-sized companies such as Europe’s largest architecture and engineering consultancy Sweco, the University of Liège and an opera house. It was coordinated by Transport & Environment, Germanwatch and VCD.
An external quote by Prof. Dr. Gerard Govers, Vice-Rector for Sustainability at KU Leuven university, which did not sign the letter, puts the initiative in context: “Scientists and professors frequently have to travel across Europe. When travelling to give a lecture or a speech, reliability is key. But all too often trans-European rail travel is marred by delays and even train cancellations. Germany needs to upgrade and expand its rail network, and the EU needs to accelerate the creation of new cross-border high-speed rail services with a synchronised timetable. The current business travellers initiative is therefore a welcome appealto the German government.”