Column: What worms worm
More money! Really now?
The railroads are being renovated because we want to make a contribution to the climate transition? Really now? I thought it was because the railroads are simply too slow, too dilapidated and too unpunctual. Run down by political parties and employee representatives, torn between capital market interests on the one hand and public services on the other, what was once Germany's most valuable company has long since lost its value.
How is the old-timer among transport policy demands, the shift from road to rail, supposed to succeed in a company where employee interests take precedence over marketability and innovation and every business decision immediately triggers the autoimmune system of the trade unions? In a country where private freight sidings are something for masochists, where route planning and construction takes generations, where electrification is a once-in-a-century project and where the speeds at which self-proclaimed high-speed trains whizz through the country free of Wi-Fi and networks only elicit a weary smile elsewhere.
With money. The largest investment program in 180 years of railroad history, at 86 billion euros, is now supposed to fix it. Every railroad boss should know that even more green marketing and even more money will not be the solution. Pretty much everyone went into the transport committee every year as a whipping boy and came out with fresh billions for new trains. "Where have they gone?", you want to sing.
The question arises as to whether rail as a mode of transport is even fit for the future in an age of exponential innovation. We have enough ideas, and there is no shortage of technologies. You could say that we are well informed, and yet we are doing pretty much everything wrong in the digital transformation because we are not taking social change into account. Success is thought of from the consumer's perspective. Rail doesn't have to be cheaper, those who have something to say must have the courage to reinvent the rail system: Japan has the most punctual trains, China the fastest and what does Deutsche Bahn stand for? This question needs to be answered in both passenger and freight transport, then maybe the railroads will work.
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