Uproar in Germany over massive sales of railway properties

 

BERLIN – The German government-owned railway, Deutsche Bahn, is selling too much of its land that should be kept for future expansion of the country’s ailing rail infrastructure, a Green Party politician charged on Tuesday.

Since 2020, Deutsche Bahn has sold more than 1,500 pieces of land, generating approximately €364.4 million ($387 million), according to a response from the railway to an inquiry made by Matthias Gastel, a Green Party member of the Bundestag or lower house of parliament. The information was made available to dpa.

The data also showed that the state-owned company intends to sell another 150 properties later this year and 100 next year, bringing in an additional €75 million in revenues. In total, Deutsche Bahn would have sold land amounting to around 12.8 million square metres or 1,280 hectares between 2020 and 2025.

But Gastel, 53, who represents a district in Stuttgart, said this “should not be a business model for Deutsche Bahn to give away such land.”

He charged that the company had always spoken of “a few targeted exceptions,” but he added: “1,500 cases in just four years tell a different story.”

Gastel said there is a significant demand for this real estate, for example for parking spaces near trains or to reactivate routes in areas that are currently overloaded.

The German government aims to double the number of passengers on railways by 2030 compared to 2015, and significantly increase the proportion of freight transported by rail within the same period – all of which requires infrastructure expansion.