The Fehmarn project is not a particularly high priority for the German federal government. Therefore, there is a real risk that Germany is simply not ready to handle the traffic when the Fehmarntunnel is scheduled to be completed in 2029. That was the message from Stefan Seidler, a member of the German parliament, the Bundestag, for the South Schleswig Voters Association (SW ) from the stage at this year’s Fehmarn Belt Days conference, which took place in Rødbyhavn on Monday.
– Maybe I’m not so optimistic. Actually, I might be a bit pessimistic. We must put pressure on the German government, said Stefan Seidler from the stage in a panel debate on how to get a new Fehmarn region across the border going.
We have many other projects
Why are you pessimistic?
– When the Danes come and talk to the Minister of Transport, there are a lot of nice words about the project, but we also have many other projects. Germany is a huge country and we have an infrastructure that has not been improved since the 1970s.
– When we look at the other connections that Germany has ordered, for example to the Brenner Pass or to the Sankt Gotthard tunnel, approvals are lacking. There is funding that has not been settled at all yet. And this is also what we can see with the German connection to the Fehmarn Belt, where there are still open questions about the economy. There are also some approvals that have not come through yet. For example, Deutsche Bahn says that approvals are needed to expand the rail network, says Stefan Seidler when FemernReport meets him after the debate.
Things go slower in Germany
– In Germany, things now work somewhat slower than in Denmark, and with that knowledge, I am not particularly optimistic. And on top of that, we – like everywhere in the world – lack people. The German government is betting massively on a shift in mobility to get traffic over to trains. This means that we have an effort all over Germany. It requires clear priorities in relation to what you want to push forward first. And I don’t see the Fehmarn Belt as one of the first priorities in Germany, says Stefan Seidler.
The Danes encounter a dirt road around old rails
What is your pessimism concretely based on?
– On road connections that will not be completed on time. On the Femernsund connection that has not been approved and completed on time and that the rails have not been completed on time. That the Danes stick their heads out and come across a dirt road, old rails and a bridge that doesn’t work, says Stefan Seidler.
The railway lacks 80 billion Euros
DB Netz has previously stated that there is a maintenance backlog of up to 80 billion Euros on the German railway network. And here too, there is not much comfort to be had from the German member of the Bundestag from the Danish minority:
– Now they are trying to give Deutsche Bahn a paltry 48 million Euros, and that is nowhere near enough. There is really a big backlog there, says Stefan Seidler.
Stefan Seidler, like Schleswig-Holstein’s transport minister, Claus Ruhe Madsen, calls for putting pressure on the German federal government to prioritize the hinterland infrastructure for the Fehmarn Belt.
The aforementioned Claus Ruhe Madsen should also have participated in a panel debate at Fehmarn Belt Days. But the North German minister with Danish ancestry had to cancel after having a bicycle accident.
