Government officials advocate for designated financial resources to upkeep German infrastructure.
The federal state transport ministers are pushing for a dedicated fund to take care of the aging railway infrastructure and decaying roads and bridges across Germany. As per Oliver Krischer, the North Rhine-Westphalian transport minister and chair of the transport ministers' conference, this infrastructure fund could be a "game-changing solution to address the infrastructure predicament" post a conference in Duisburg. Regrettably, a concept from the federal transport minister has yet to materialize, prompting the states to take matters into their own hands.
The primary objective is to boost project planning certainty and speed up infrastructure development. To realize this, the transport ministers plan to establish an "open-ended special fund," as suggested in the draft resolution. This fund will primarily focus on augmenting the rundown railway network, along with road and bridge maintenance across Germany.
The transport ministers' conference proposes tapping into motorway toll funds or earnings from DB subsidiary InfraGO to finance this fund, among other sources. According to the proposal, these funds ought to remain within the fund rather than returning to the federal budget.
There are still several details that require clarification. To address these, the transport ministers' conference has established a specialized task force.
Initially, the Federal Ministry of Transport had suggested a budget-unconfined infrastructure fund. The transport ministers' conference endorsed this proposal at their April meeting but has yet to receive a corresponding concept.
The establishment of the open-ended special fund is aimed at enhancing maintenance of the deteriorating railway network, roads, and bridges. To ensure the fund's sustainability, it might draw from sources like motorway toll funds or earnings from DB subsidiary InfraGO, keeping these funds within the fund instead of returning to the federal budget.
