Business community calls for binding commitment to rail expansion
The Upper Bavarian business community is warning that the expansion of the 38 line from Munich via Mühldorf to Freilassing—one of the largest rail projects in Germany—may be scrapped. “The Federal Ministry of Transport is currently unable to guarantee project financing. This is devastating news for the business location and the entire region,“ explains Manfred Gößl, CEO of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce for Munich and Upper Bavaria.
Chamber of Industry and Commerce CEO Gößl: Dilapidated infrastructure is a bottleneck for intra-European transport
”The Chancellor and the Federal Minister of Transport have promised that everything that is ready for construction will be built. We take the government at its word. The ABS38 is essential for the entire rail network from Munich to southeastern Bavaria and a pillar for the future viability of the region. If this major project is on the chopping block, it would be a broken promise and a politically caused setback for the business location and the entire region,” said Gößl, head of Main Line for Europe e.V. Member of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry for Munich and Upper Bavaria.
The Chamber of Industry and Commerce is calling on the Federal Ministry of Transport to give a binding commitment that the project financing is secured and that the important rail axis between Western and Eastern Europe will finally be brought up to the latest technical standards. “The only justification for the so-called ‘special fund for infrastructure and climate protection’ is that it enables additional investment by the federal government. The money must flow into the projects that have been planned for years on site, as intended,” demands Gößl. “Not only local companies, but also citizens, quite rightly expect the infrastructure to be modern, efficient, and functional.” He points out that around 40,000 people work in Bavaria’s chemical triangle, many of whom depend on the railways, and that hazardous materials must be transported by rail in accordance with the law.
The IHK boss expressly thanks the ABS38 project team at DB InfraGo, led by overall project manager Alexander Pawlik, for their decades of planning and their iron will to push ahead with and implement the project. “We are appalled that the federal government is stabbing the railway in the back as it pushes ahead with its plans and leaving the team here on the ground out in the cold. This also sends a fatal signal to our European neighbors, such as Austria, who are moving quickly on infrastructure projects and waiting for us. Our dilapidated infrastructure is a bottleneck for intra-European traffic and a disruptive factor for the further development of the European single market.”
Source: ABS38 on the chopping block? Business community calls for binding commitment to rail expansion: Chamber of Industry and Commerce for Munich and Upper Bavaria