Column What worms worms #40
Man before mouse or the traffic jam must go
Surprise. The parties have recognized with concern that traffic jams, broken roads and a lack of connections are a problem. In fact, it doesn't take much. The CDU/CSU want to fix it with innovations and faster planning, the SPD with more inland waterways and rail, Alliance 90/The Greens focus on more rail, trees and electric vehicles. The Left Party wants us to go back to walking, cycling and rail. The rest are traveling at 30 km/h. The FDP is backing more money. The AfD too, and on top of that an undefined infrastructure stimulus program. Because promises are often inversely proportional to expertise in election campaigns, it is worth taking a look at the realities.
Well, there has been plenty of money for infrastructure since the last legislature. It just can't be spent. Long planning periods have driven the construction of new infrastructure practically to zero. 25 years for a federal highway, 30 years for a railroad line - it is planned in generations, and then patched up until autonomous driving perhaps saves us at some point. Too few planners, too many regulations, and with the EIA, short for environmental impact assessment, every infrastructure project can be buried at will - on land, at sea and in the air.
The Brenner Base Tunnel is a memorial to failure. For a long time, the Germans believed that the project was nothing more than Viennese schmoozing and Italian larifari. The fact is, the world's longest rail tunnel will open in less than ten years. Over 400, mainly freight trains could then sprint through the Alps every day at a speed of 250 km/h over a length of 64 kilometers. Munich-Verona in less than three hours. A dream. Unfortunately for longer, because there is not even a route plan for the northern approach on the German side, which has been decided since the early 1990s. Austria and Italy are on schedule, by the way. Embarrassing, isn't it?
Anyone who seriously wants to free people from congestion, noise and pollutants must tackle planning times, put innovation before transport ideologies and people before costs, and put traffic underground more often. Too expensive? Who else do you want to spend money on! "People before mice", said Ulrich Lange, transport policy spokesman for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, recently. Mice have long since recognized the advantages of underground transport.
Anita Würmser is a business and logistics journalist, former editor-in-chief of "Verkehrs-Rundschau", "Logistik Heute" and "Logistik inside" and currently initiator of the Logistics Hall of Fame and the IFOY Awards, among other things. In LT-manager, "Mutti", as she respectfully calls the industry, hasn't minced her words exclusively since issue one.
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