AfD on transport

The AfD wants to keep kindergartens and schools in rural areas and expand bus and rail connections. Public transit is to be geared more toward families and older people. The party aims to stop people leaving the countryside and ease pressure on urban housing markets.

The AfD wants to make life in the countryside better. Kindergartens and schools in villages should stay. Buses and trains should run more often. Old people should also be able to reach a doctor easily.

Kindergartens and school sites are also to become places for leisure, such as music and sports. Villages should be better connected to larger towns, and schools easier to reach. For older people, the platform calls for enough doctors who can be reached by public transit. The AfD also plans a funding program for multigenerational living in rural areas.

The AfD wants to provide more money to maintain and expand roads and bridges, especially in rural areas. It commits to car travel and rejects a general speed limit on highways.

The AfD wants to repair and expand roads and bridges. There should be enough money for this. This matters most in rural areas. The party does not want one fixed speed limit on all highways.

According to the platform, about 1,850 of roughly 4,100 kilometers of state roads are in poor or very poor condition, which the AfD attributes to wrong spending priorities. Road expansion should take ecological concerns into account, for example through wildlife crossings. On town bypasses, the party wants to discuss pros and cons with residents and make full use of federal funds. Highways should relieve towns of through traffic. The AfD supports speed limits set by traffic control systems depending on conditions.

The AfD rejects the so-called transportation transition and wants to repeal political rules on vehicle drivetrains where they shut many people out of car travel. No drivetrain should be favored or excluded; businesses, researchers and consumers should decide on technologies.

The AfD wants to cancel rules about how cars are powered. Everyone should choose: gasoline, diesel or electric. The government should not favor one technology. The party wants to keep the combustion engine. It opposes limits on cars in cities.

The platform calls the transportation transition a planned-economy project that, in the AfD's view, leads to lost prosperity, deindustrialization and less freedom. Synthetic fuels should not be ruled out politically. The party rejects restrictions on car traffic in cities and prefers smart traffic management instead. It says the combustion engine secures jobs in Thuringia and is essential for trade businesses that rely on vans. The AfD does not reject electric vehicles in principle but considers them unsuitable in many cases and points to resource use and environmental damage on other continents.

The AfD wants to expand and maintain bike paths and close gaps in the network. It rejects favoring cycling at the expense of cars and opposes government subsidies for buying cargo bikes.

The AfD wants more and better bike paths. Gaps in the bike path network should be closed. Cars should not be put at a disadvantage. The government should not pay for people to buy cargo bikes.

The platform says cycling offers advantages for personal mobility, especially in cities, and counts it as a form of private transport. The goal is a well-connected network of bike paths. However, cycling should not be given one-sided priority over cars. The AfD does not want subsidies for purchasing cargo bikes.

The AfD wants to maintain and expand local public transit by bus and rail, including on routes with few riders. It regards transit as a basic public service so that rural areas do not fall further behind.

The AfD wants to keep and expand local buses and trains. They should be reliable and cheap. Routes with few riders should stay too. The party wants to use on-call buses and shared taxis.

According to the platform, purely economic considerations must not decide whether services run, because rural areas in particular would otherwise lose their connections. The AfD wants to work with local transit companies on solutions for an attractive network. Service should be offered where demand is low if necessary. On-call buses and shared taxis are to be used. The platform also considers transit important for tourism in Thuringia.

The AfD wants people with disabilities, children and apprentices to be able to use buses and trains at little or no cost. It rejects fare-free transit for everyone. It also wants train stations, stops and trains to be safer.

The AfD wants buses and trains to be free for some people, if possible. These are people with disabilities, children and apprentices. Everyone else should keep paying. Stations and trains should be safe.

The platform names three groups that should ride local public transit for free where possible: people with disabilities, children and apprentices. The AfD rejects ticket-free transit for all, because it would have to be paid for entirely through subsidies. On safety, it argues that good service is useless if people avoid it out of fear of crime. Stations, stops and trains should therefore become safe places again, in the party's view.

The AfD wants to maintain and expand long-distance passenger rail by upgrading existing lines and reopening closed ones. Rail freight should also be strengthened where it makes economic sense. The party wants to keep Erfurt-Weimar airport as an asset for the region's economy.

The AfD wants more long-distance trains. Existing lines should be improved. Closed lines should be used again. More goods should travel by train. The Erfurt-Weimar airport should stay.

The platform cites Jena as an example: since the new Erfurt–Ebensfeld line opened, Erfurt has been very well connected, but Jena, an industrial and university city, has lost long-distance connections. Rail freight is meant to relieve roads and the environment, wherever that is possible and economically sensible. The AfD wants to press the federal government to expand and modernize the necessary infrastructure. It describes Erfurt-Weimar airport as modern and suitable for international flights, and as important for attracting businesses.

The AfD wants to introduce a "Thüringer Gästekarte" (Thuringia guest card) that combines tourist offers with local public transit. Thuringian families with at least three children would get it for free. Roads, local transit, cycling and hiking trails and internet access should also be expanded.

The AfD wants a guest card for Thuringia. The card works for many attractions. It also works for buses and trains. Large families from Thuringia get it for free. Roads and trails should get better.

Destinations should be easy to reach. To that end, the program wants to repair and expand state roads and strengthen local transit in rural areas. The network of cycling and hiking trails should grow, and money should go into more sports facilities and campgrounds. Stable, fast internet should be available everywhere in the state. The guest card would be free for Thuringian families with three or more children.