Deutsche Bahn
Billions in aid for rail flows
An ICE is on a platform in Berlin Central Station. After the losses in the corona pandemic, aid worth billions is now flowing to Deutsche Bahn and other industry companies. Photo: Carsten Koall / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Corona has hit the rail industry hard. Because the number of passengers collapsed – and with it the income. But financial aid flows. One company in particular benefits.
After the losses in the corona pandemic, aid worth billions is now flowing to Deutsche Bahn and other industry companies.
From this month onwards, 2.1 billion euros are to be paid out to the DB network division, as the German government’s rail commissioner, Enak Ferlemann, announced.
This promotes user fees for the long-distance rail network – which largely benefits the railways themselves. With its ICE and Intercity trains, it masters long-distance traffic. The market shares of the competitor Flixtrain and the Austrian Federal Railways with their night trains are small.
So far, only a small part of the direct and indirect aid totaling 3.77 billion euros that the EU Commission had approved has flowed. This emerges from Ferlemann’s answer to the FDP member of the Bundestag Torsten Herbst, which is available to the German Press Agency.
Until the approval in July, there had been long negotiations with the Commission to avoid conditions for the federal group, such as the separation of parts of the company. The federal government was recently criticized by trade unions for the fact that aid was flowing too slowly.
Most of the funding for freight transport has now been paid for. Here, too, a train path price reduction is subsidized. Deutsche Bahn’s competitors also benefit from this, as more than half of the freight trains run on the network for them. According to Ferlemann, of the planned 627 million euros, 537 million euros had been transferred by mid-October.
A direct equity increase for Deutsche Bahn is also planned. The payment of a partial amount of 550 million euros is in preparation, it said. Despite the wage increase that had recently been agreed with the railway and transport union, the aid package does not have to be adjusted, Ferlemann noted.