DB and the northern Länder sign alliance contract to ensure faster rail expansions.

Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, and DB have signed a memorandum of understanding on the "Northern Railway of the Future" - €30 billion by 2030 to support and accelerate rail development - strengthening local, long-distance, and freight transport.

Deutsche Bahn (DB) and Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, and Schleswig-Holstein are supporting the rail network expansion in northern Germany through a joint alliance. The "Zukunft Schiene Nord" project aims to support and accelerate new and expanding projects, strengthen existing infrastructure, and boost long-distance, local, and freight transport - across the borders of the Länder. The alliance partners thus want to expand rail services and increase the attractiveness of rail. The main objective is to attract more passenger and freight customers to environmentally friendly rail transport and thus protect the climate. More than €30 billion is to get invested in rail infrastructure, in the north of the country, by 2030. Today, representatives of the partners signed a memorandum of understanding establishing the alliance.

Ronald Pofalla, Member of the Board of Management for Infrastructure at DB: "We are establishing a Railway Hanseatic League. The alliance means an attractive railway in the northern German states, more goods on the rails, and a German cycle. Such a strong alliance between the five Länder and DB is unique for expanding rail in Germany. Together we are making climate-friendly rail an efficient and attractive mode of transport. This plan applies equally to metropolitan and rural areas. Thanks to cross-border cooperation, we can plan more efficiently, more quickly, and more comprehensively in the future - for rail transport offers from a single source."