GERMANY’s Federal Court of Auditors presented a report to the German parliament on January 17 which calls for the federal government to define German Rail’s (DB) future role, including possibly splitting train operations from infrastructure management and selling its two largest subsidiaries, Arriva and Schenker.
“The federal government and DB have missed the core objectives of the railway reform initiated 25 years ago,” says Mr Kay Scheller, president of the Federal Court of Auditors. “Especially in relation to road, there is hardly any more traffic on the rails. In freight transport, the proportion of rail traffic is even lower than in 1990.”