Promotion of public regional rail passenger transport
In early 2020, the Bundestag (Lower House of Parliament) and the Bundesrat (Upper House of Parliament) decided to amend the Regionalization Act (Regionalisierungsgesetz; RegG) to increase the Federal states’ regionalization funds for regional rail passenger transport. The € 8.8 billion planned for 2020, which will be increased by 1.8% annually until 2031, will therefore be further increased: thus, in the years 2020, 2021 and 2023, an additional € 150 million will also be available. As the rate of 1.8% is also applied to this increase, an increase of € 5.2 billion is expected in the period 2020 to 2031. In a protocol declaration, the Federal Government also announced that a law will be launched by the end of this year to limit the increase in train-path and station fees in regional rail passenger transport to the legal increase rate of the regionalization funds of 1.8%.
At the same time, the Bundestag and Bundesrat have also significantly increased the means of promoting the construction and expansion of rail-based public transport (especially subways, S-Bahn (metros) and trams). The Federal funds from the GVFG will increase from the current € 332 million to about € 665 million in 2020 and to € 1 billion from 2021. A further increase to € 2 billion is planned for 2025. As of 2026, this amount will be increased by 1.8% similarly to the RegG. In addition, more project types are eligible for funding and the Federal Government will assume a higher share of financing in the supported GVFG projects.
