The high-speed route from Berlin via the converted Cottbus train station (photo) and Görlitz to Breslau should only be completed in 15 (!) years. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-Zentral
By Michael Sauerbier
For years, the federal government has been promising fast rail routes to the east. But nothing happens. Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (47, CDU) burst his collar in Potsdam on Wednesday.
At the German-Polish railway summit, the state secretaries from Berlin and Warsaw praised their cooperation. But the result was meager: only one additional pair of trains each on two railway lines to the neighboring country. From Berlin to the border town of Küstrin, the trains have to crawl at a speed of 60 to 80. Poland, on the other hand, is planning a high-speed railway.
The high-speed route from Berlin via Cottbus and Görlitz to Breslau should only be completed in 15 (!) years. Until then, ICE trains will only roll into the new Cottbus railway depot for maintenance. Then Kretschmer burst the collar.
“Why isn’t that progressing?!” the Saxon rumbled before leaving the summit prematurely. “We expect a federal government to implement these things. It can’t go on like this!” Embarrassed silence from the gentlemen from Berlin.
Dietmar Woidke (lr, SPD), Prime Minister of Brandenburg, Michael Kretschmer (CDU), Prime Minister of Saxony, and Richard Lutz, CEO of Deutsche Bahn Photo: picture alliance/dpa
But Kretschmer continued his angry speech: “In Sunday speeches, the big things are emphasized. And then we’re told in minute detail that it doesn’t work. We need those connections. It has to start now!”
Brandenburg boss Dietmar Woidke (61, SPD) called the situation “unsustainable”. “It has to go faster,” Woidke demanded from the federal government, “otherwise only frustration will be produced here.“