What about train traffic in Germany? The Chancellor gave the answer on Tuesday morning before the press conference when he arrived in Cottbus. Olaf Scholz (SPD) apparently wanted to be on time for the groundbreaking ceremony for a huge new ICE maintenance workshop and had his black chancellor’s limousine roll into the turning hammer next to the main station. After all, the railways had already warned in the invitation about a bumpy journey by train. Because of the many construction sites, “stop cancellations” can be expected on the route from Berlin to Cottbus, it said.
But Scholz doesn’t need a standstill right now. Not these days. Because while in Brandenburg, just over 200 kilometers further north, 1,200 refinery employees in Schwedt fear for their jobs because of a planned EU oil embargo against Russia, a completely different signal had to be set in Cottbus. Scholz came to start a prestige project for the entire region. Together with Bahn boss Richard Lutz, Scholz gave the official starting signal for a new railway plant in the structurally weak Lusatia, which should bring well-paid jobs.
Brandenburg’s Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke (SPD) called it a “lighthouse project for structural change”. The construction of a new location for 1200 employees has already begun. According to Bahn, this is to become the most modern maintenance facility for the ICE 4 fleet, and it will cost around one billion euros. Climate-damaging diesel locomotives are still being converted into hybrid locomotives here. But that too is a finite business model. Just like the coal mining in the neighboring opencast mines. The railway should now permanently bring new jobs. The first hall for 500 employees is to be completed by 2024, and the entire plant will be completed by 2026.
In a speech next to the almost 500 meter long construction site, Scholz made it clear on Tuesday that a groundbreaking ceremony is also political. The SPD politician announced that support for Ukraine would continue. Even with weapons. At the same time, however, the federal government is speeding up the transformation of the German economy. This also includes the conversion of mobility and the rapid expansion of the railway. The new work will help. Because the railways will need more ICE trains in the future, i.e. more maintenance capacities.
But it’s not just the turnaround in traffic that makes the Chancellor drive quickly to Cottbus between visits by re-elected French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday evening and Belgium’s Prime Minister Alexander De Croo on Tuesday afternoon. He makes it clear: this is where the fight against a lack of prospects and anger is being waged. Lusatia is one of the most important industrial regions in Germany, says the Chancellor. But many people had experienced an upheaval that, in their eyes, was a break. “Many ask themselves the question: is there anything else coming up?” The chancellor has come to show: Yes.
The large train station in Cottbus should also prevent a political landslide in the region. Because in a few months, an AfD candidate could become mayor in Cottbus and thus for the first time in a larger German city. The AfD was the strongest force here in the 2019 local elections. In the state elections in the same year, she won the direct mandate.
The government argues fiercely about the right railway policy
For Scholz, the train visit is also about a completely different problem. Because within Scholz’ government there is a heated argument about the right course in rail politics. Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) apparently wants to make significantly less money available for the expansion than the railways need for the planned projects. Internally, Wissing’s officials are already warning of a “growing investment backlog”. The financing of rail transport is “dramatically underfunded”. Several billion euros are missing by 2030. Otherwise construction projects could fall by the wayside.
If it stays that way, the goal of the federal government to double rail traffic by 2030 for more climate protection is also likely to fall out of reach. Criticism of the tough financial stance towards the railways is growing in the Bundestag. Apparently there are no additional funds for new railway lines this year, and there should be “hardly any more money” in the coming years, warns left-wing budget politician Victor Perli. The government will therefore “fail with a bang to significantly increase the performance of the railway and to implement the Germany cycle”. Without better infrastructure, the train could not transport more people, said Perli.
However, the government now wants to quickly solve one problem with infrastructure projects. Scholz announced on Tuesday that planning and approval processes for major projects would be accelerated. “We will plan and approve future projects in the fields of energy, infrastructure, construction and environmental law in half the time,” he said. The federal government will make all the necessary decisions before the end of this year.