The Federal Court of Auditors is sharply criticizing Deutsche Bahn (DB) and the federal government as its owners. "The crisis of DB AG is becoming chronic, the group is developing into a restructuring case that endangers the entire railway system," said the President of the Federal Court of Auditors, Kay Scheller, on Wednesday on the occasion of the presentation of a special report on the "permanent crisis" at the railway. After several "lost years", the German government must finally take decisive action against the causes of this crisis, Scheller demanded. To this end, it must "restructure the Group effectively, comprehensively and quickly". Otherwise, the federal government and the railways would fail to meet their ambitious transport and climate policy targets.

Corinna Budras

Business correspondent in Berlin.

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The new Federal Minister of Transport, Volker Wissing (FDP), was certified by the Federal Court of Auditors "a proper approach" in the establishment of a new steering group in the ministry, which is to closely accompany the planned general renovation of Deutsche Bahn. However, Scheller warned that this would not solve the problem either. The federal government must regain control of the rail network.

The Federal Court of Auditors therefore calls for a break-up of the railway group. The rail network and the stations must be bundled in an independent undertaking to which the State has direct access, preferably in the form of a limited liability company. The company would then have to manage the extensive general renovation as well as the maintenance and expansion of the rail network independently of Deutsche Bahn. The Federal Court of Auditors has long been calling for far-reaching reforms, which, however, largely bounced off the former Federal Minister of Transport Andreas Scheuer (CSU). Instead, he felt bullied by the authorities.

A separation of rail and rail operations has been hotly debated for years, especially when it comes to giving more impetus to competition in passenger and freight transport. The private competitors have had a hard time for years to prevail against the top dog railway. Not only the company and the railway and transport union strictly reject the separation, the traffic light coalition has also explicitly decided against it. Wissing is currently working on the establishment of a new "infrastructure company oriented towards the common good", which, in the opinion of the Federal Court of Auditors, is still too closely intertwined with the group.

The state must also tackle the enormous debt as the owner. In the meantime, the group has accumulated a mountain of debt of more than 30 billion euros – "even though the state is increasingly supporting DB AG financially in various ways," as Scheller complains. These public payments, which most recently averaged 16.6 billion euros per year, exceeded revenues from infrastructure charges, transport and passenger revenues. "DB AG is increasingly developing into a bottomless pit."

The international activities of the Group are also a thorn in the side of the controllers. This involves both the logistics subsidiary Schenker, which is now to sell Deutsche Bahn, and foreign orders in Egypt, India and Canada, where the state-owned company is helping to set up and operate rail systems. While the government is pursuing industrial policy goals, the Federal Court of Auditors castigates this as "alien to the railways". The railway should rather concentrate on its domestic tasks.