"The great competitive and sustainability advantage of German seaports resides in good connections rail'. This was underlined by Frank Dreeke, president of the Zentralverband der deutschen Seehafenbetriebe (ZDS), the association of German port companies, explaining that a joint study created by ZDS and IHK Nord, the association of 13 Chambers of Commerce and Industry of the five states of Germany northern Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein, points out that the measures of expansion of railway capacity envisaged by Deutschland-Takt, the government's plan to optimize the scheduling train schedules and enhancing transport rail, they are not enough to manage future traffic goods. "The study on Deutschland-Takt - he specified - demonstrates that, so that rail freight traffic to and from ports work properly, capacities must be increased through targeted measures such as flexible routes and earnings efficiency in the system'.

In particular, the study notes that, with regard to the rail freight transport, the government plan is based on unrealistic forecasts. For ZDS and IHK Nord, efforts are needed considerable if the stated objective of transport by rail a quarter of all goods in Germany by 2040. "Northern Germany - noted the President of IHK Nord, Norbert Aust - is an important hub of international transport in Europe and only for this reason the the rail network must be extended in such a way as to meet the necessity. It is incomprehensible - he denounced - the reason why in the federal budget spending on railways Federals is shrinking massively. Compared to budget for in 2022 - he underlined - more than half a billion people are expected euros less. This contradicts the intentions to bring more people and more goods on the tracks."

To adapt the railway offer to what will be the current but above all future demand ZDS and IHK Nord propose two infrastructure plans to be implemented by 2040. The first provides for the preparation of usable railway lines flexibly for freight traffic so that you can react to traditional fluctuations in logistics. According to the study of the two associations, this requires 24 measures individuals with a total investment of about ten billion of euros. In addition, in order to ensure the fluidity of the rail passenger and freight traffic, ZDS and IHK Nord have stressed the need to increase capacity in targeted way to avoid a domino effect caused by interruptions and Delays. To this end, the report proposes a further 21 individual measures with corresponding investments of 17 billion euros.

IHK Nord and ZDS therefore demand that the government plan be expanded to include the 45 measures proposed in the study in order to avoid the collapse of rail freight transport.