Linke on transport

The Left wants to expand local public transit and adapt it to the needs of older people. It plans accessible stops and vehicles, discounted tickets for seniors and more on-demand buses in rural areas.

Many older people need buses and trains. The Left wants more buses and trains. Stops and vehicles should be free of obstacles. Older people should get cheaper tickets. There should be more on-demand buses in rural areas.

The platform notes that many older people depend on buses and trains to reach doctors, shops or cultural events. For on-demand buses, the "harzbewegt-Taxi" model is to be extended to other counties. As a price break, the Left names a senior ticket or reduced fares.

The Left wants young people to be able to reach school, training and leisure places easily without a car. Buses and trains would run to match those needs, including evenings and weekends, and stay permanently cheap for young people. The platform names a youth ticket or free travel as the goal.

The Left wants young people to get around easily. Buses and trains should also run in the evening and on weekends. Travel should be cheap for young people. In the end it might cost nothing at all. Bike paths and routes to school should become safer.

In every district, a youth space should be reachable in about 15 minutes; otherwise a mobile service would come to the area. Timetables would be coordinated with class schedules and club hours. For children and young people, the plan calls for continuous, protected bike routes with visible crossings, lighting, winter maintenance and bike parking. Routes to school would have a 30 km/h speed limit and clearly marked crossings so that fewer parents drive their children. Stops and schedules would also take refugee housing on the outskirts into account, with information in several languages.

The Left wants to expand public transit as an essential public service and connect every municipality to it. Funding is to rise noticeably, and transit is to become a funded mandatory task of local governments. Car and truck traffic should decline, though cars should stay affordable for villages without transit access.

The Left wants more buses and trains across the state. Every town should get a connection. The state should spend more money on this. In villages without a bus, cars should stay affordable.

Municipal transit companies are to keep receiving money for new buses and streetcars, and on-demand buses are to be made legally possible. The Left wants to promote car sharing, preferably with fixed stations. The state accessibility program is to get more money, and the conversion of stops is to move faster. A targeted build-out of infrastructure for alternative drive systems in passenger and heavy transport is also planned. Decisions on accessibility and bus-rail connections are to be made jointly with local councils.

The Left wants to offer public transit fare-free across the state in the medium term, arguing that cost is decisive for whether people use it. As a first step, there would be low-cost tickets for schoolchildren, apprentices, students, volunteers and people with low incomes. The federal government is to pay more, and the state is to legally permit new financing models.

The Left wants buses and trains to be free later on. First there should be cheap tickets. For example for students, apprentices and people with little money. Single tickets should not get more expensive every year.

The first step is low-cost, year-round tickets for schoolchildren, apprentices, volunteers, students and low-income riders. The Left aims for a statewide fare network, capped single-ticket prices and an end to annual price hikes. Federal regionalization funds are to go entirely into buses and trains, with school transport paid for separately. Passes are to remain available on paper, and ticket sales are to be accessible. Fair pay for transit workers is meant to end the staff shortage.

The Left wants to preserve and expand the rail network instead of closing more lines and stops. Disused routes are to be protected in state planning, stops reopened, and long-distance connections in the state kept and extended. In the platform's view, past cutbacks contradict climate protection and leave rural regions behind.

The Left wants no more rail lines to be closed. Old lines and stops should be able to reopen. There should be more trains, running more often. More freight should go by rail instead of by truck.

Branch lines freed up by structural change are to be used for freight and passengers, and station buildings renovated for public-interest uses. The platform names the Merseburg–Leipzig S-Bahn, a long-distance connection for Dessau and a long-distance link between Magdeburg and Berlin. IC lines are to stay and grow, and state money is to make the Deutschlandticket valid on heavily used IC sections. Plans include more frequent regional trains, stronger state bus lines, more buses between small towns, and funding for electrification and network expansion. For freight, the Left wants to fund provider-neutral logistics hubs, make the "Busschnellgut" pilot permanent and examine freight transport by streetcar.

The Left wants to make building bike paths between municipalities a state responsibility and close gaps in the cycling network. Road money is to go primarily to maintenance and be tied to expanding bike and pedestrian paths. The platform sees this as part of an ecological transport transition and points to projects stalled for lack of funds.

The Left wants to build more and wider bike paths. The state should be in charge of this. Road money should mainly keep old roads in shape. New roads should only come in certain cases. Sidewalks should get better too.

Road construction subsidies are to be paid only if bike and pedestrian paths are expanded as well. Plans include continuous, sufficiently wide bike paths, bike highways, bicycle streets, parking facilities at train stations and a subsidy program for cargo bikes. The Left wants new roads only where they demonstrably benefit sustainable transport modes, for safety reasons or to improve rural access. It respects decisions already made on expanding major routes but sets other priorities and calls for more public participation in road projects. A state pedestrian strategy, accessible sidewalks and free bike transport on trains are also included.

The Left wants a nationwide speed limit on autobahns and more 30 km/h stretches in cities and villages. Municipalities should be able to decide on lower speeds themselves. The platform cites Vision Zero, the goal that no one dies in road traffic anymore.

The Left wants a speed limit on all autobahns. Towns should have more 30 km/h zones. Cities and villages should decide this themselves. That way fewer people should die in crashes.

At the federal level, the Left wants to push for municipalities being able to lower speeds on their own. State and county road safety associations (Verkehrswachten) are to receive more staff and money. The state's road safety program is to be updated. Road safety work is to become a mandatory task for municipalities.

The Left rejects further expansion of Leipzig/Halle Airport as well as any military use. The night flight ban is to be enforced consistently, with an exception for strictly necessary express freight. The platform cites stressful working conditions and harmful nighttime aircraft noise at the logistics hub.

The Left does not want to make Leipzig/Halle Airport bigger. Hardly any planes should fly there at night. The military should not use the airport. People living nearby should be better protected from noise.

In the Left's view, the logistics hub meets neither its standards for good work nor those for ecological and economic sustainability. It calls for better working conditions at the airport and more noise protection for residents. Regional commercial airports are to receive no more state money for further development.