Industry seeks dialogue with Schnieder

Great expectations are being placed on Patrick Schnieder. Interest groups are optimistic about the new Federal Minister of Transport. ‘Reliable, serious and solution-orientated,’ is how Jan Glockauer, long-standing managing director of the Trier Chamber of Industry and Commerce and now a board member of project developer Triwo, describes him. ‘He‘s not someone who pushes his way to the front of the queue.’ Stefan Gerwens, Head of the Transport Department at ADAC, also experienced him as ‘objective and calm’ during the work on the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan (BVWP) 2030.

In 2016, Schnieder defended the list of around 1,000 transport projects and his pet project – closing the gap in the A1 motorway in the Eifel region. This project is not only important for Rhineland-Palatinate, but for the whole of Germany because ‘we are setting the course for a sensible, forward-looking transport policy up to 2030 that will guarantee prosperity, growth, mobility and therefore jobs in Germany’.

The association ‘Die Güterbahnen’ appeals to the new Federal Minister of Transport‘s thirst for action. ‘There is a great need for action in transport, much has been left undone,’ writes the interest group in a letter to Schnieder. Even if the coalition agreement between the CDU/CSU and the SPD names the important issues, there is still a lot of room for interpretation to be closed. ‘We and the experts and practitioners of the private rail freight companies would be pleased to enter into an open and constructive dialogue,’ the association said.

For his part, Schnieder emphasises the need to clear the backlog of renovation work and significantly speed up planning and approval processes. Digitalisation, the expansion of electric mobility and the promotion of hydrogen infrastructure for commercial vehicles are also on his agenda. (rok)