Matthias Gastel: Focus on the future of rail – this is how he wants to revolutionize transport!

Matthias Gastel: Focus on the future of rail – this is how he wants to revolutionize transport!

Matthias Gastel remains loyal to Deutsche Bahn and his political work. He continues to work intensively to improve the transport infrastructure, while at the same time remaining a member of the Alliance 90/The Greens parliamentary group. In addition, he will maintain his membership in the transport and tourism committees and continue to focus on rail and freight transport, such as Teckbote reported.

He pays particular attention to maintaining the road network and expanding railways. Gastel points out the dilapidated and outdated railway lines that run particularly between the cities of Stuttgart, Nürtingen and Tübingen. In order to sustainably improve the infrastructure, he also remains a member of the supervisory board of DB InfraGO, the infrastructure division of Deutsche Bahn.

Challenges of Deutsche Bahn

However, Deutsche Bahn faces serious financial challenges. Group debt has been growing alarmingly by five million euros per day since 2016, so the current debt level is already over 30 billion euros. The causes of this debt include insufficient federal investment in infrastructure and management errors, such as Matthias Gastel explained.

Although the benefits of the sale of the Schenker division, which generated significant revenue for DB, will be used to pay off debt, the question of sustainable financing remains open. The federal government, as DB's sole shareholder, has direct influence here through its supervisory boards and general subsidies.

Future prospects and necessary reforms

Measures are necessary to increase the performance of Deutsche Bahn. Gastel calls for better management and more reliable financing of the infrastructure. This also includes the need to provide meaningful metrics for analyzing network health.

The integration of infrastructure and rail operations in DB AG is viewed as problematic. The latest structural reform, which is considered the first in 30 years, is being launched by DB InfraGO in order to optimize the stationary and network areas and reduce profit pressure. The federal government has also reduced the number of corporate subsidiaries from 730 to 270 and is countering failure to achieve contractually agreed goals with potential sanctions.

Overall, Matthias Gastel remains a central player in the discussion about the future of Deutsche Bahn. He plans to be regularly present in his constituency and continue to be available as a contact person to address the concerns of his constituents and the challenges facing the railway.