BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - In the view of the rail industry, the fact that the federal government is now investing significantly more money in the railways has already made itself felt in the sector over the past year. "In the domestic market, the infrastructure sector is a reliable indicator of how far the federal government's plans to renovate and modernize the railways are progressing," said Andre Rodenbeck, President of the German Railway Industry Association (VDB), on Wednesday. "And now there is movement."

After years of stagnation, the industry's turnover in the domestic infrastructure business rose by 17 percent to around four billion euros in 2023. Incoming orders in the segment increased by almost a third to 3.6 billion euros.

In view of the overloaded and in many places dilapidated rail infrastructure in Germany, the federal government has promised a lot of money: It wants to invest around 30 billion euros in upgrading the railways by 2027. This is still significantly less than the funding requirement, which Deutsche Bahn puts at 45 billion euros for the period. But it is significantly more than in previous years and decades.

However, the rail industry is insisting on long-term planning security. It is still unclear whether the federal government will continue to invest at this level beyond 2027. The VDB also stated that the industry must be able to protect itself against future rising costs by means of price adjustment systems.

According to its own figures, the industry generated a total turnover of 14.4 billion euros last year. Despite the growing infrastructure business, a large part of this is still attributable to the vehicle sector. According to the VDB, revenue in this segment amounted to 10.4 billion euros, roughly the same as in the previous year./maa/DP/stw