Dhe Offenbach main station has been a tragedy since it was left behind by long-distance traffic. The building is run down and the wall paint has yellowed. Anyone who is unlucky enough to have to wait longer for a train here will search in vain for a kiosk or even a bakery. Offenbach is not a sad isolated case; the list of run-down train stations could easily be continued with impressive examples: sadness is also spreading at the Riedbahn, in Rüsselsheim and in Travemünde.
The train stations, as shabby as they may be, provide a shining example of what is currently going wrong with the railway infrastructure in Germany. Anyone who walks along faded wall tiles in this republic, prefers to stand rather than sit on dirty benches, or passes the time in drafty waiting halls will inevitably think of Deutsche Bahn.
In fact, it only owns around 900 reception buildings in Germany. In recent years it has sold a number of the approximately 5,400 train stations, often to the respective municipality. The reason: Maintenance and renovation of the buildings, some of which are oversized, are far too expensive; especially in rural areas, it is impossible to persuade restaurants and shop operators to rent space there. Not even a baker sets up shop there, which in turn makes urgent renovation of the roof completely utopian.
States and municipalities are also overwhelmed by the task of bringing this not entirely insignificant part of their cityscape into shape. For the Rüsselsheim Opelwerk station, for example, the state of Hesse and the transport associations RMV and NVV, together with the railway, concluded the third multi-million-dollar “framework agreement for the Hesse station modernization program” two years ago. Nothing has been built yet. The city of Offenbach also agrees with the state-owned company that “the reception building and the surrounding area at Offenbach main station must be tackled together,” as a railway spokeswoman put it.
Orphaning and falling into disrepair are mutually dependent
This is how the vicious circle closes: train stations become deserted because they are becoming increasingly dilapidated, and they are becoming dilapidated because they are becoming increasingly deserted. For the customer, the order doesn’t matter because only the result counts – and that is often enough devastating. “The train stations shape the image of the railway,” says Heike Moll, who has spent a lot of time in train stations, for example when announcing trains at Munich Central Station. She is now chairwoman of the DB Station&Service general works council. “If the family trip begins in a dingy and shabby train station, it is difficult to improve the bad first impression. Even a punctual and clean train cannot undo the negative experience.”
The railway now wants to change that. Filled with a thirst for action, the new infrastructure director Berthold Huber stopped the sale of train stations in the summer in order to lend a hand. Under the umbrella of a new infrastructure company oriented towards the common good, he not only wants to renovate around 40 high-performance corridors, but also a third of the station buildings in Germany, even if they no longer belong to the railway. He has found a major supporter in Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP). Colorful diagrams of the “train stations of the future” are already circulating in the ministry: They should be efficient and customer-oriented, real mobility hubs.
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