Budget adjustment: ERTMS title for 2022 confirmed - higher commitment appropriations

More money than originally planned will be available for equipping German infrastructure and rolling stock with the European train control system ERTMS in the 2022 budget year. A corresponding resolution of the red-green-yellow federal government was passed by the budget committee of the Bundestag at the so-called adjustment meeting on 19 May 2022.

Accordingly, the budget for the relevant budget item "891 06-742" for 2022 will be increased by EUR 31.5 million from EUR 580.5 million to EUR 612 million. However, the additional money is reserved exclusively for the planning (up to and including work phase 4 HOAI) of the digital interlocking Hamburg-City. The coalition justifies the inclusion of the project in the budget by stating that "this is federal infrastructure, which is why the project is worthy of funding from the coalition's point of view".

The funds planned for 2022 for the other projects remain unchanged:

• ERTMS equipment: 323.4 million EUR
• Starter package "Digital Rail Germany": 134.1 million EUR
• Digital capacity management: 58 million EUR
• Compensation of cost increases for the ETCS equipment of the vehicles affected by the Digitaler Knoten Stuttgart project: EUR 65 million.

In addition, the commitment appropriations of the title are increased for some budget years. These allow the current government to enter into commitments, for example, to make investments that will only lead to expenditure in later budget years. For the financial year 2024, they increase from EUR 67.3 million to EUR 257.3 million, for 2025 from EUR 71.3 million to EUR 274.9 million. In total, they now amount to EUR 2.1 billion for the ERTMS budget title until 2030.

In the budget adjustment, the Budget Committee makes final changes to the draft budget. The budget of the Federal Ministry of Transport is to be discussed and voted on by the Bundestag on 31.05.2022, the entire budget on 03.06.2022. (jgf)