Federal budget 2024 approved
On February 2, 2024, the Federal budget for 2024 was approved. A total of more than € 17 billion is available for the major rail items, which is about € 7 billion more than in the 2023 Federal budget and just under € 7 billion more than had been planned in the previous Federal financial planning.
- Part of the funds for rail is an equity increase of € 5.5 billion for infrastructure, which was increased by € 4.375 billion compared to the so-called Government draft. The additional equity increase compared to the Government draft dated August 9, 2023, serves to compensate for the cancelled funds from the Climate and Transformation Fund.
- With an increase of almost € 2.8 billion compared to 2023, the funding of the budget item to modernize the existing network (Performance and Financing Agreement) was increased significantly to just under € 7.5 billion. The funding in the 2024 Federal budget means that the financing requirements for the general modernization and maintenance of the existing network are secured for 2024.
- The ERTMS (European Rail Traffic Management System) item for the digitalization of rail has been allocated just under € 1.1 billion in 2024, an increase of about € 0.45 billion compared to 2023.
- Just under € 1.7 billion has been secured for the new construction and expansion as part of the requirement plan, which is € 0.3 billion less than in 2023.
There are also remaining funds from previous years in both items (ERTMS as well as new construction and expansion).
In the area of support for rail transport, there have been reductions compared to the Government draft in order to compensate for the necessary overall budgetary consolidation in the budget of the BMDV budget. The cuts relate primarily to train-path and facility price support for rail freight transport, which now amount to € 229 million (instead of € 350 million) and € 20 million (instead of € 85 million) for 2024. The budget item for single wagon transport support remains at just under € 300 million, which is at a significantly higher level than in 2023. Together with the facility price support amounting to € 20 million, a total of almost € 320 million is available for supporting single wagon transport in 2024.
With the 2024 Federal budget, the current financial plan up to 2027 and DB Group’s own contribution, additional funding totaling about € 27 billion is planned for the period from 2024 to 2027. The identified additional financing needs for rail by 2027 amount to a total of € 45 billion and are therefore not yet fully covered.
