Ti: DB’s huge 'investment offensive' may not be so huge

© Lucian Milasan

Transport Intelligence writes:

The headline number of €86bn is eye-catching but it is unclear what the latest investment plan for Deutsche Bahn will really deliver. On Tuesday (14/1), Richard Lutz, the CEO of Deutsche Bahn; Olof Schultz, Germany’s finance minister; and Andreas Scheuer, Germany’s transport minister had a ‘signing ceremony’ where they announced a deal to pump €62bn into the railway network, a sum which will be matched by Deutsche Bahn investing €24bn from its own funds. Mr Lutz described it as “the biggest growth, investment and modernisation offensive in the more than 180-year history of the railways”.

The money will be spent in great part on ‘permanent way’ infrastructure such as bridges, signalling systems and new track. Deutsche Bahn emphasised that €7bn would be spent on new signal boxes alone. The investment will be spread over the next ten years.

In reality much of this money was already committed last year. The event may owe more to public criticism of Deutsche Bahn’s performance and a German government that wishes to be seen spending on infrastructure, especially if that infrastructure can be seen as ‘Green’.

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