The Green party has generally welcomed the planned link between bonus payments for railway managers and specific operational objectives, but simultaneously called for significantly greater investment in the rail infrastructure. Deputy Parliamentary Group Chair Julia Verlinden told the Funke Media Group newspapers that people naturally expect that bonuses tied to achieving goals, such as reliable passenger transport, should indeed be linked to results. However, she stressed that the root cause of delays and cancellations stems primarily from the fact that the federal government has invested far too little money in the rail infrastructure over decades.
Federal Transport Minister Steffen Bilger (CDU) had announced that in the future, the bonus payments for train managers would be specifically oriented toward whether the goals set by the federal government are met. Furthermore, the new financing agreement for railway infrastructure is supposed to be more tightly linked to specific requirements.
Verlinden urged Minister Bilger, along with Federal Minister of Finance Lars Klingbeil (SPD), to ensure adequate funding. Consequently, she demanded that Minister Bilger work with Finance Minister Klingbeil to ensure that the special fund for infrastructure and climate protection-as well as sustainable, sufficient funding-finally reaches where it needs to be: enabling the railway to function properly again.
