The Federal Network Agency of Germany has approved a requested increase in route prices for DB InfraGo, the rail infrastructure subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn AG, for the upcoming year.
According to the Freight Railroad Association, the route prices for rail freight transportation will increase by 16.2% next year. As a consequence, the route prices, which are now 3.21 Euros per standard freight train, will be increased by 52 cents as of December 2024 to reach 3.73 Euros per route kilometer.
“Instead of tending to the common good, DB is initiating the largest route price increase program in the history of the group,” Neele Wesseln, Managing Director of Güterbahnen, commented.
Since the government is cutting federal rail subsidies at the same time, the price per mile will increase by 121% from December 2023 to December 2024. According to the association, this will be 31 percentage points more than the one-time increase in the truck toll last December (by approximately 90%).
The association is warning that “a number of railroad companies will be on the verge of their economic existence,” all the more so as the economic environment for railroads is already tough.
Source: trans.info