Rail traffic: Head of government Lies: New rail line is only “half a solution”

Lower Saxony's Prime Minister Olaf Lies considers the decision in the Bundestag for a new railway line between Hamburg and Hanover to be inadequate. “Putting your head through the wall and pushing ahead with the planning of a new line, which might come in 30 or 40 years, is only half the solution,” said the SPD politician. He will continue to put pressure on a third track to be added to the existing route.

Lies described the decision in the Bundestag's Transport Committee as a planning decision without secured financing, "so another signal where you don't know what's coming." A third track on the current route is still possible, but is not planned. “I think that’s a big mistake,” said the head of government.

The federal government has focused very much on connecting the big cities. “It’s more important to me what this means for commuters in my country,” said Lies. “In my opinion, this has not been given enough consideration in Berlin.”

Minister skeptical about new stops for regional transport

Lower Saxony's Transport Minister Grant Hendrik Tonne also criticized that the new building meant an uncertain timeline. “I don’t want to talk to people about what could happen in 25 years, but I think we have to give them an answer now, how can we increase capacity on the current route so that things get better,” said the SPD politician.

Regarding the option described in the decision that the state of Lower Saxony could build new stops for regional traffic along the new route, Tonne said that what this should look like had never been discussed with the state. “We’re also talking about perspectives that are far, far away. 20, 25, 30 years in the future,” said Tonne.

According to the resolution, the Soltauer Heide and Bergen overtaking stations should be structurally prepared so that they can be expanded into regional transport stops if ordered by the state.

Greens are happy about the decision in favor of the new building

The opposition leader in the state parliament, Sebastian Lechner from the CDU, emphasized that it had been decided in Berlin that the new line could continue to be planned. “It was not decided today in the German Bundestag that it would come, that it would be built.” The benefit-cost ratio still has to be proven in the next few years, and there is still no financing for the new line. However, the planned relief on the existing route is good.

The Greens, as coalition partners in the state government, are happy about the planned new building. “I have to tell you quite honestly that this either/or policy, which has so far not brought us a kilometer of improved infrastructure, is finally over,” said co-parliamentary group leader Detlev Schulz-Hendel. The decision was overdue.