Government · Chapter 10
Transport & infrastructure
From December 2013 to October 2017 Alexander Dobrindt was responsible for Germany’s federal motorways, railways, waterways and aviation. His tenure combined the largest infrastructure investment plan in the country’s history with its most contested transport law: the car toll.
Sources: Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure; German Bundestag; trade press (VerkehrsRundschau, Vergabeblog). Figures as announced at the time.
A ministry for networks
Fact
Dobrindt was sworn in as Federal Minister of Transport and Digital Infrastructure on 17 December 2013, succeeding his CSU colleague Peter Ramsauer in Angela Merkel’s third cabinet, a grand coalition of CDU/CSU and SPD. The Chancellor’s organisational decree of the same day gave the renamed ministry (BMVI) responsibility for telecommunications, broadband strategy and telecommunications law, previously held by the economics ministry. The ministry therefore combined classic transport infrastructure — federal motorways and trunk roads, the federal railways, inland waterways and aviation — with the country’s digital networks, which are covered on the Digital Infrastructure page.
Analysis
The political context mattered. By 2013 there was broad agreement among the federal states, industry and transport associations that Germany had under-invested in maintaining its roads, bridges and rail lines for years. Commissions set up by the state transport ministers had documented a considerable annual funding gap. Dobrindt inherited both the backlog and a coalition agreement that promised the CSU’s signature project: a toll for cars that would not place additional burdens on German drivers.
The investment ramp-up
Fact
Under the label Investitionshochlauf, federal transport investment was raised by roughly 40 per cent over the legislative period, to around €14 billion a year by 2018 according to the federal financial plan (about €13.7 billion in 2017 and €14.4 billion in 2018). In the budget debate of November 2016 Dobrindt described the 2017 transport budget as the largest infrastructure budget there had ever been.
He also pursued the principle that users, not only taxpayers, should finance infrastructure — through the car toll, the extension of the HGV toll and an expanded use of public–private partnerships (PPP) for motorway projects.
Criticism
The Federal Court of Audit (Bundesrechnungshof) found that five of six motorway PPP projects it examined had been around €1.9 billion more expensive than conventional financing would have been. Dobrindt nevertheless continued to favour the model. Critics also pointed out that higher budgets did not immediately translate into construction: planning capacity and lengthy approval procedures limited how quickly money could be spent.
Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 2030
Fact
The Bundesverkehrswegeplan (BVWP) sets the federal government’s priorities for road, rail and waterway projects for roughly fifteen years. Dobrindt’s plan was adopted by the federal cabinet on 3 August 2016 together with three draft expansion laws. With a volume of €269.6 billion and around 1,000 projects, it was the largest such plan to date. Its central principle was “maintenance before expansion and new construction”: about 69 per cent of the funds were earmarked for maintaining and replacing existing infrastructure, compared with 56 per cent in the 2003 plan.
Criticism
Environmental associations and the Greens criticised the plan for allocating the largest share to roads and for including numerous new road-building projects. In May 2016 SPD and Green politicians in Bavaria also criticised the volume of projects in Dobrindt’s own region, pointing in particular to roughly €540 million for three tunnel bypasses in the Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Oberau area.
The car toll
Political position
The infrastructure levy for passenger cars (Pkw-Maut, officially Infrastrukturabgabe) was the CSU’s central demand in the 2013 campaign. Its premise: drivers from abroad should contribute to financing German roads, as German drivers do in Austria, Switzerland, France or Italy, while German owners would be fully compensated through lower vehicle tax.
„In Zukunft finanziert Mobilität Infrastruktur.“ “In future, mobility will finance infrastructure.” Alexander Dobrindt in the Bundestag debate on the infrastructure levy, 27 March 2015 (as reported by the German Bundestag)
- 2 Sep 2013
Campaign promise
A day after Chancellor Merkel said in the televised debate that there would be no car toll with her, CSU Secretary General Dobrindt declared at the Gillamoos fair that the toll for foreigners would come.
- 7 Jul 2014
First outline
As minister he presents the concept, initially covering all roads, describing it as closing a “fairness gap”. CDU state associations object to tolling minor roads near the borders.
- 30 Oct 2014
Draft bill
Foreign-registered cars are to pay only on federal motorways; German owners on motorways and federal roads, offset by vehicle-tax relief.
- 27 Mar 2015
Bundestag vote
The Infrastructure Levy Act passes with 434 votes to 128 (6 abstentions). The law is promulgated on 8 June 2015.
- 18 Jun 2015
EU infringement procedure
The European Commission opens proceedings over possible discrimination against non-German EU citizens. Dobrindt suspends the start of the toll; the Commission escalates on 28 April 2016.
- 1 Dec 2016
Compromise with Brussels
Agreement with the Commission: cheaper short-term vignettes from €2.50 for ten days and additional tax relief of about €100 million a year for low-emission Euro 6 cars.
- Mar – May 2017
Amended law in force
The Bundestag passes the amendments on 24 March, the Bundesrat lets them pass on 31 March, and the Commission closes its proceedings on 17 May 2017.
- 12 Oct 2017
Austria sues
Austria, supported by the Netherlands, brings an action against Germany before the Court of Justice of the European Union.
- 18 Jun 2019
Court of Justice strikes it down
In case C-591/17 the CJEU rules that the toll, combined with the tax relief for German owners, amounts to indirect discrimination on grounds of nationality — contrary to the Advocate General’s opinion. By then Andreas Scheuer was minister; he terminated the operator contracts.
- 2019 – 2023
The aftermath
A Bundestag committee of inquiry examines Scheuer’s handling of the contracts. In 2023, after arbitration, the federal government agrees to pay the operators €243 million in compensation.
Criticism
From the beginning the toll faced objections on three fronts: its compatibility with EU law, its revenue (the ministry forecast net income of around €500 million a year; the motoring club ADAC published far lower estimates) and its effect on relations with neighbouring countries, above all Austria. Dobrindt’s remark in April 2017 about the “constant Austrian toll-grumbling” („ständige Ösi-Maut-Maulerei“) was widely criticised in Austria.
Analysis
Dobrindt delivered what the CSU had promised: a toll law, passed twice and approved by the Commission. That it never came into force was the result of a court ruling two years after he left the ministry. Whether the legal risk was adequately weighed remains one of the central questions in assessments of his tenure — see Controversies.
Extending the HGV toll
Fact
Less visible but financially more significant was the extension of the toll for heavy goods vehicles. On 11 May 2016 the cabinet approved a bill extending the HGV toll from motorways and some federal roads to all federal trunk roads — around 40,000 additional kilometres, bringing the tolled network to roughly 55,000 kilometres. The ministry expected around €2 billion in additional annual revenue. The Bundestag passed the law in November 2016, the Bundesrat cleared it on 10 February 2017, and it took effect on 1 July 2018.
Rail
Fact
Rail projects account for €112.3 billion in the BVWP 2030, a larger share than in previous plans. As owner representative of the federal government, the transport minister also plays a role in the governance of Deutsche Bahn. On 30 January 2017 DB chief executive Rüdiger Grube resigned abruptly after a dispute with the supervisory board over the terms of his contract extension; Dobrindt spoke of a lack of willingness to compromise on both sides. Chief financial officer Richard Lutz took over, first on an interim basis and later as chief executive.
The diesel scandal
Fact
In September 2015 the US Environmental Protection Agency revealed that Volkswagen had used software to manipulate emissions tests. Dobrindt set up an investigation commission at his ministry. On 15 October 2015 the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA), which reports to the transport ministry, ordered a mandatory recall of 2.4 million VW vehicles in Germany. The commission’s report of 22 April 2016 found no comparable test-cycle detection at other manufacturers but raised doubts about so-called thermal windows; around 630,000 vehicles from several brands were recalled “voluntarily”.
Dobrindt gave evidence to the Bundestag’s committee of inquiry on emissions on 16 February 2017. At the “National Diesel Forum” on 2 August 2017, convened with Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks, manufacturers pledged software updates for 5.3 million diesel cars.
Criticism
Environmental and consumer organisations, including Deutsche Umwelthilfe and Greenpeace, accused the ministry of being too close to the car industry, of relying on voluntary measures and of withholding test data. Dobrindt defended the ministry’s handling before the Bundestag’s committee of inquiry.
Assessment
Analysis
Dobrindt’s transport record is two-sided. On the structural questions — more money for infrastructure, a shift towards maintenance, the user-pays principle for heavy goods vehicles — his decisions have largely endured and are reflected in the investment levels of later governments. His flagship political project, the car toll, failed in court and became a costly episode for the federal budget, though its final collapse occurred under his successor. The diesel scandal showed the limits of a ministry that was both regulator and advocate of a key industry.
Continue with Digital Infrastructure, or see the case studies on Major Decisions.