The fight for the distribution of billions in taxes is entering the decisive phase this week: On Thursday, the budget committee will discuss the controversial points again in its “clean-up meeting”. After four days of deliberations in the Bundestag, the plan is to vote on the 2024 federal budget on December 1st. One of the most controversial individual items is the transport budget: How much money should flow into roads, rails, cycle paths, footpaths and local public transport?
The weighting of state funds and the funding mix are crucial for the desired transport transition and the achievement of climate protection goals in Germany. It is undisputed that there is a need for action there. Germany will be Climate target The federal government’s expert council ruled at the end of August that this will not be achieved by 2030. Even taking into account the 130 measures devised by the federal government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it would not succeed, it said 72-page statement
. And the experts gave it a particularly bad report Transport sector the share of climate-damaging greenhouse gas emissions in Germany According to the Federal Environment Agency, this is now a fifth
. Even in the report’s optimistic scenario, the transport sector will significantly miss its climate target by 187 million tonnes (cumulative until 2030) of CO2 equivalent.
These sector targets should even be relaxed in the future. A controversial one Amendment to the Climate Protection Act
is intended to abolish the responsibility of the individual sectors to fulfill their individual goals in the future. For example, if the transport sector mathematically exceeds its annual emissions budget, other sectors such as energy or agriculture should be able to compensate. The obligation to take countermeasures with an immediate program should also be eliminated. Experts have contributed a hearing
The Bundestag’s Climate Protection and Energy Committee sharply criticized the amendment a few days ago. The Federal Association of the Energy and Water Industry, for example, like the environmental organization German Watch, spoke out clearly against weakening the sector goals. A lack of a strategy in the transport and building sectors, which have already failed to achieve their goals in the past, would be “grossly negligent”, according to German Watch.
The government and ministry reject the suspicion that Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (53, FDP) will rely more on the reduction efforts of other departments. The priorities can now be determined in the dispute over the new transport budget.
Of the total planned 446 billion euros in total spending in the draft budget, Wissing traditionally has the largest block for investments of all ministries. He also had to make cuts compared to the previous year. Thanks to the billions in revenue from the new truck toll, which will apply from 2024 and is intended to encourage haulage companies and companies to switch to emission-free heavy trucks and vans, the ministry’s budget is expected to rise to 38.7 billion euros. That would be a good three billion euros more than in 2023.
Cycling: Investments almost halved by 2024
However, anyone who listens to mobility experts or representatives of the bicycle lobby gets the impression that there is a lack of coordination and a sense of optimism. A lot of money is flowing into projects that benefit car traffic, while funding is being cut elsewhere for projects on climate-friendly mobility. For example, the coalition is clearing out new traffic laws 138 highway projects because of an “overriding public interest”.
In fact, Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (44, FDP), in coordination with his department and party colleague Wissing, wants to further reduce the funds for expanding cycling to 400 million euros for 2024; in 2022 it was still 750 million euros. “This is the opposite of the future-oriented financial policy for a modern transport system announced by the Ministry of Finance,” criticizes Wasilis von Rauch, managing director of “Future Bicycle”. The traffic light does not achieve its climate goals, but halves the funding for the most climate-friendly means of transport – a “hammer”, complains the General German Bicycle Club (ADFC) and calls on the members of the Bundestag to set the “wrong priorities in the transport budget” in the planned vote on Not to let December 1st pass.
The Ecological Transport Club of Germany argues in the same direction. To do that in National cycling plan
In order to achieve the established goal of doubling the number of kilometers cycled in Germany by 2030, at least one billion euros is needed annually. The transport ministers of the federal states have already demanded this amount if Germany is to become a “bicycle country” by 2030, as announced.
Further funding for cargo bikes uncertain
The planned investments remain tentative. For example, in order to relieve inner cities of traditional delivery traffic, the government is promoting the purchase of electric cargo bikes in industry, commerce, businesses and municipalities. The federal government will add up to 2,500 euros, and by mid-November the responsible Federal Office of Economics and Export Control had paid out around 4.8 million euros for around 3,320 electric cargo bikes and cargo trailers. The program runs until the end of February 2024.
In the summer, at the request of manager magazin, the Federal Ministry of Economics stated that the funding program would be continued beyond this date. This is apparently no longer certain. When asked again, the ministry spoke of a “possible continuation of the promotion of e-cargo bikes as part of the National Climate Protection Initiative”.
Car instead of train: Germany is still far behind
The largest items in the budget are earmarked for the construction and operation of federal highways (around 12.8 billion euros) – and for the renovation of the ailing Deutsche Bahn rail network (around 16 billion euros including a possible four billion from the climate fund
). Railway boss Richard Lutz (59), who is about has contact with Minister Wissing once a week
, gets significantly more than in previous years and is supposed to tackle a project that both call “general renovation”.
Nobody denies that missed investments in rail are necessary. Between 1995 and 2018, Germany ranked twelfth in Europe in terms of per capita investment in rail infrastructure, showed a study presented in the fall
from the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy on behalf of Greenpeace. During this phase, the state cumulatively invested around twice as much money in the road network (278 billion euros) as in rail (132 billion euros). The ratio improved only slightly in favor of rail between 2018 and 2021 – while other countries such as Italy, France or Great Britain reversed their priorities and invested more in rail.
Germany is also lagging behind in absolute terms. According to the “Alliance for Rail”
For the past year, per capita investments are still far behind at 114 euros Luxembourg (575 euros), Switzerland (450) or the Czech Republic (171). “The daily reports of delayed trains and complete cancellations are just a translation of this lack of investment,” says mobility expert and futurologist Stefan Carsten.
Free buses and trains as a lever for the transport transition
Carsten would like to see a lot more public transport. “The introduction of free public transport for all citizens would cost the state between 12 and 15 billion euros per year,” he calculates. The small EU states Malta and Luxembourg
, often highlighted for their nationwide, free public transport, have already found imitators at the local or regional level. In Germany, too, a handful of cities are already experimenting with free local transport, albeit with varying limitations; In Erlangen, for example, a three-year model experiment will start on January 1st.
Highly controversial: Bicycle and environmental associations criticize the Federal Transport Minister’s long-term traffic forecast published in March. It cements the primacy of the car and, among other things, massively underestimates the role of the bicycle in the mobility transition.
The evaluation of the experiments and thus the question of whether the offers actually contribute to less car traffic in the city is still pending, reports “Tagesspiegel”
. But that is already clear, free public transport in itself is no guarantee of success for a transport turnaround: in the Estonian capital Tallin, where public transport has been free for a good decade, The proportion of commuters by car has actually increased in recent years
.
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In Germany, citizens can travel by regional train, S-Bahn and bus for just 49 euros per month. The federal and state governments are funding the Deutschlandticket with a total of around three billion euros, although further financing beyond next spring is still open. So it’s quite possible that the ticket will be more expensive.
However, the instrument does not have the hoped-for impetus for the climate goals. Measured against the actual CO2 savings, critics are already doing this today bought as far too expensive. The ticket could only become a real CO2 killer and a significant contribution to the transport transition if it forced people to switch from cars to buses and trains. The government’s billions are not being used efficiently.