"Rolling Long-term Traffic Forecast" of the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMDV): a road-fixated transportation policy from the last century!

Malte Lawrenz, Chairperson of VPI, on the

"Rolling Long-term Traffic Forecast" of the Federal Ministry for Transport:

"a road-fixated transportation policy from the last century!"

"Anyone extrapolating from dubious figures over a hardly comprehensible period of 30 years will quickly go off track. More than anything, he suggests a lack of alternatives rather than actively shaping the transportation of the future.

It is a cruel irony of history that, of all parties, the transportation ministry of the traffic light coalition is acting as a brake and downgrading railway freight traffic to nothing but a niche. The shipping industry and the railway sector have long since set their sights on achieving the politically postulated goal of 25 per cent market share by 2030.

The railway system has long been able to accomplish more than is attributed to it in the forecast—and it is more than prepared to face the challenges of the future. Freight transports are moving away from bulk goods? The structure of goods is becoming ‘more granular’? Yes, that’s true. That is way why wagon keepers are already working on new wagon and transport concepts. And that is just one example of many. Innovations such as digital automatic coupling and ETCS can increase the performance of railway freight traffic enormously.

What we need to achieve our climate goals and prevent a transportation collapse is clearly stated in the coalition agreement: make rail traffic a priority. The Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMDV) must finally deliver by demonstrating the necessary will to make changes and accelerating the pace of implementation!"