Good morning, dear reader,
Anyone who regularly takes the bus and train knows this: Sometimes the train arrives an hour late, sometimes there is only rail replacement service with buses that take two hours longer to get to the same destination. Then again the connection fails completely. If you’re lucky, an app warns you in good time, everyone else waits on the dreary platform for the next connection.
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Although you forget it so quickly, we once had it “sustainable, efficient, barrier-free, intelligent, innovative and affordable mobility for all” was promised – exactly as the traffic lights in their coalition agreement. Sounds too good to be true? It won’t either.
Even if the Germans wanted to, they could hardly do without their cars. Because there are no real alternatives. This is due to the lack of political will, namely that of the responsible minister: Volker Wissing.
He rightly refers to the lousy legacy he inherited almost three years ago. The rail network was in ruins. The Merkel governments, especially their CSU transport ministers, had no interest in strengthening the railways. Between 1995 and 2019, the federal rail network shrank by more than 20 percent. During the same period, highway length increased by 18 percent.
The priorities were clear: free car travel for free citizens. In Germany, a car-loving country, no one should have the idea that there could be an alternative to a car. It’s just unfortunate that more and more cars on the roads wear out the roads more and more quickly. Which is why many roads and bridges are dilapidated.
However: Volker Wissing has not shifted his priorities either. There is little about his transport policy that is sustainable or efficient. There are currently more cars on German roads than ever before, almost 50 million, and the proportion of electric cars is just three percent. In 2023 alone, 2.8 million new cars were added, an increase of 7.3 percent compared to the previous year.
And of course the Minister of Transport continues to invest horrendous amounts in the expansion of the road network, not only in the urgently needed maintenance of the existing roads, but also 50 billion for new ones.
So it’s no wonder that the transport sector fails to achieve its class target for climate protection every year. This would be urgently necessary. After all, road traffic is responsible for 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in Germany.
But Volker Wissing has now found an innovative solution to this problem: The climate protection law is changed without further ado. No longer does every single sector have to save emissions. No, he can benefit from the class nerds, those sectors that save more than they have to. This allows him to compensate for the poor figures in his department. It is now the overall result that counts. And everything on German roads can stay as it is. The vacation is saved.
The holidays? Yes. Because Wissing is this highlight with a clever blackmail succeeded: He once threatened driving bans via the “Bild” newspaper, which unfortunately would have to be announced in the middle of the holiday season if the climate protection law was not changed – and the resistance at the traffic lights was already broken. Who wants to be responsible for driving bans during the holidays? In these exciting times. The fact that these wouldn’t have been necessary had the transport minister finally made a serious effort to reduce emissions in his sector, for example with a speed limit, or in other transport areas such as shipping. Audacity keeps coming.
After all, we have Wissing to thank for the Deutschlandticket. The nationwide uniform tariff for using local public transport has made it much more attractive. However, there is a heated debate about this again in Münster at the transport ministers’ conference. Because permanent financing is anything but secure. The countries are also missing billions. They are already threatening to cut public transport.
What’s missing besides money? Above all, a concept for “sustainable, efficient, barrier-free, intelligent, innovative and affordable mobility for all”.
A feast for the ears
What’s up?
The EU and Iran: The heads of state and government of the European Union are continuing their informal summit in Brussels today. They came together on Wednesday evening. And already then one topic dominated: How to respond to Iran’s attack on Israel? There are calls for tougher sanctions and Iran’s elite armed forces, the Revolutionary Guard, to be classified as a terrorist organization. Actually, it should be about Russia’s war against Ukraine and the EU’s economic relations with China. It will, especially today.
The G7 and Iran: The foreign ministers of the G7 countries have chosen an incomparably more beautiful venue for their meeting: the Mediterranean island of Capri. That’s why they stay longer – namely until Friday. They were there too Iran and the Middle East conflict already in the foreground on Wednesday. Our foreign policy reporter Patrick Diekmann reports from the ground how the G7 states (in addition to Germany, the USA, Canada, Great Britain, France, Italy and Japan) are trying not to lose the initiative in the storm of crisis.
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