AfD on transport

The AfD rejects government subsidies for buying electric cars, charging stations and hydrogen buses. Instead, research funding should be open to all drive technologies on equal terms.

Today the state pays part of the price when someone buys an electric car. The AfD wants to stop that. It says mostly people with a lot of money buy these cars. Research money should be open to all kinds of engines.

According to the platform, electric cars do not succeed in the market on their own because of long charging times and high prices; sales rise only thanks to large subsidies. This makes the e-car a product for higher earners. Subsidizing products that are not market-ready contradicts the principles of the social market economy, the AfD argues.

The AfD wants to give transport policy priority in the state budget in the short and medium term and, above all, repair state roads. It rejects policies that favor or disadvantage particular modes of transport and stresses free choice of how to travel.

The AfD wants more money for roads and transport routes. Broken state roads should be fixed first. Everyone should choose freely how to travel. Citizens should vote on big transport questions.

The platform describes transport routes in NRW as underfunded for decades and run-down in many places. The AfD backs referendums on basic transport questions and local referendums on disputed construction projects. The state government would develop a funding model based on the Swiss FABI fund and have independent experts assess it. On rural roads, accident black spots would be defused, roundabouts built instead of traffic lights, and road shoulders repaired. Condition reports would rely on current data, and maintenance money would go only to road surfaces, bridges, and related structures.

The AfD wants to protect, promote and keep car travel affordable. It rejects diesel driving bans, access-metering traffic lights and environmental lanes, relying instead on digital traffic management and free-flowing traffic.

The AfD wants to protect driving. Driving should stay affordable. The party rejects driving bans for diesel cars. Traffic lights should be set so that traffic keeps moving.

The platform calls the car the most popular way of getting around. It calls for more and free park-and-ride lots, better links between cars and public transit, digitally controlled traffic systems and synchronized green lights. The AfD considers diesel bans, access-metering lights and environmental lanes poorly supported by science. It rejects Sunday and holiday bans on motorcycles as collective punishment. Main roads in city centers should not be narrowed or limited to 30 km/h; cycling should shift to parallel streets. Road works should be better coordinated and roads renovated in a single pass.

The AfD wants to make preserving road bridges in North Rhine-Westphalia a top priority and have older bridges inspected immediately. The federal government should pay the full cost of repairing the Rhine bridges to relieve cash-strapped municipalities.

Many bridges in the state are old. The AfD wants them checked right away. The bridges over the Rhine should be repaired first. The federal government should pay for this.

According to the platform, two thirds of the state's more than 10,000 road bridges were built before 1985. They are to be inspected immediately for safety and load capacity. The 28 Rhine crossings should come first; eleven of them are a municipal responsibility. Because cities such as Duisburg cannot afford the repairs in the AfD's view, the federal government should cover the entire cost. The party also calls for expanding and building ports and repairing waterways and locks to take pressure off roads.

The AfD wants punctual and safe local transit and wants to keep the existing structure of three regional transit authorities. Connections should be better coordinated, and transit operators, public order offices and police should jointly tackle crime.

Buses and trains should be on time and safe. The AfD wants changing between them to work better. Police and transit companies should work together against crime. Drivers should not pay more for this.

The three transit authorities VRR, NVR and NWL are to remain in place regardless of changing majorities. Municipalities should arrange bus and tram timetables so that good connections exist at train stations in a regular-interval system. The platform relies on attractive service and voluntary choice and rejects politically driven cost increases for drivers. Security partnerships are meant to target organized theft, drug dealing, and violent and sexual offenses. The AfD also backs a bike network with express bike routes, with costs matched to demand.

The AfD considers one-sided support for electric vehicles a mistake and wants to keep the combustion engine. It rejects the Euro 7 emissions standard because, in its view, it amounts to a ban on combustion engines.

The AfD wants to keep gasoline and diesel cars. It thinks it is wrong to support only electric cars. It rejects a strict new EU rule on exhaust. The car industry should stay in Germany.

According to the platform, the modern combustion engine is competitive overall once battery production and the electricity mix are counted. The party regards hydrogen as technically immature and too expensive. The AfD rejects Euro 7, a planned stricter EU emissions rule. The goal is to keep car manufacturing in Germany.

The AfD wants to revive air travel in North Rhine-Westphalia after the COVID crisis and, via the Bundesrat, permanently abolish the aviation tax. It rejects a night flight ban at Cologne/Bonn, and Düsseldorf should get a new operating permit.

The AfD wants to strengthen air travel in the state. The tax on plane tickets should go away. Planes should still be allowed to fly at night at Cologne/Bonn. Düsseldorf airport should be able to offer more flights.

The federal government should cover passenger screening costs at least temporarily. For Düsseldorf, the party seeks a new operating permit and more intercontinental routes. The five regional airports should get better transit links, and current operating hours should stay. On CO2 and noise, the platform relies on technical innovation, alternative fuels and financial incentives for quiet aircraft. It rejects national go-it-alone measures, EU requirements it considers unrealistic and what it sees as excessive CO2 pricing.