Federal budget 2025: transport spending is falling, investments are planned!

Federal budget 2025: transport spending is falling, investments are planned!

Federal Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder (CDU) has presented the details of the planned federal budget for 2025 and expects expenditure totaling 38.26 billion euros. This represents a decrease of almost six billion euros compared to 2024. According to Schnieder, Section 12 of the Budget Act will be discussed in the Bundestag on July 8, 2025. The draft budget also stipulates that revenue is set at 14.23 billion euros, which is also a decrease compared to 15.87 billion euros in 2024. What is particularly noteworthy is that 13.37 billion euros of the revenue is said to come from the truck toll, which amounted to 15.14 billion euros in the last period. The ministry estimates the collection costs for the truck toll at 1.39 billion euros, which also represents an increase compared to 2024.

Expenditure on federal highways is also affected: 10.82 billion euros are earmarked for this, a decrease of around two billion euros compared to the previous year. Of this amount, 9.39 billion euros go to planning, construction, maintenance and operation. Investments by the federal Autobahn GmbH are expected to amount to 3.63 billion euros, while 2.08 billion euros are planned for administration, operation and planning. 756.52 million euros are earmarked for requirements plan measures on federal roads, and 1.49 billion euros are planned for the maintenance of federal roads.

Railways and waterways in focus

The ministry is planning 12.6 billion euros for the federal railways, which also shows a decrease compared to 16.4 billion euros in 2024. The federal government's infrastructure contribution is significant at 3.2 billion euros and a loan of three billion euros for investments in federal railways. Deutsche Bahn AG is to receive increased equity capital of 8.48 billion euros, which represents an adjustment compared to 5.5 billion euros in the previous year. The planned investment subsidies for local public transport amount to 888.9 million euros, also a significant increase compared to 411.27 million euros in 2024.

The 2025 federal budget has a total volume of 480.6 billion euros and is around eight billion euros lower than the previous year's budget. Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner emphasizes that despite these cuts there is no austerity budget. The level spent remains the same, with the main objective being to stimulate the economy through planned investments of 78 billion euros while preserving social benefits. Nevertheless, the general manager of the German Freight Forwarding and Logistics Association (DSLV), Frank Huster, expresses concerns that the budget cannot provide any real impetus for growth. This is due, among other things, to rising costs for personnel, raw materials and energy, which devalue the real transport budget.

Ambiguities and challenges

The revenue side of the budget is already showing weaknesses, as the service provider Toll Collect expects savings of up to one billion euros from the truck toll. There are also questions regarding the federal government's loans to Deutsche Bahn AG and Autobahn GmbH as well as the planned funds for the Climate and Transformation Fund (KTF). The Pro-Rail Alliance is positive about the increased investment in the rail network, but warns of the falling total amount of rail investment, which has fallen by almost 750 million euros compared to the previous year. There has also been a call for multi-year planning security for the rail infrastructure.

What happens next depends on the upcoming parliamentary process that the draft budget has to go through. Schneider and his colleagues face significant efforts for future budgets, especially with a planning gap of around 39 billion euros in 2028.