BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) is planning gradual changes at Deutsche Bahn – but no fundamental reforms. First of all, on January 1, 2024, there will be a new, public-interest-oriented infrastructure company, for which DB Netz AG and DB Station und Service AG will be merged. A new joint stock company is planned under the project name “InfraGo”, as it was said on Monday from circles of the Ministry of Transport. The income from this new company should be used for infrastructure, there should be no focus on maximizing profits.
Further measures for a second step are being examined, it said – above all for control by the federal government and for a new and more transparent financing architecture. The ministry is considering bundling funds from previously different sources into two central financing pots in the future: one for the renovation of the existing network and one for expansion and new construction. For this purpose, a so-called service and financing agreement with the railways could be further developed.
In their coalition agreement, the SPD, Greens and FDP had announced the establishment of a new, public-interest-oriented infrastructure division that would be 100 percent owned by the state-owned Deutsche Bahn. The railway should remain as a so-called integrated group – there should be no separation of network and operation./hoe/DP/jha