SPD on transport

The SPD aims for a broad transformation of transportation and wants to invest considerably more in public transit and transport infrastructure. A larger share of traffic is to move to buses, regional trains and long-distance rail so the state contributes to the climate targets for 2030 and 2045. North Rhine-Westphalia is also to become a hub for night trains.

The SPD wants to change how people travel in the state. More people should use buses and trains instead of cars. This should help the climate. The SPD wants to spend much more money on buses, trains and transport routes. More night trains should also run through NRW.

The platform treats mobility as an essential public service and a condition for equal living standards and a competitive logistics location. All transport routes are to be expanded, from walking and cycling to local transit, rail and waterways. Together with European neighbors, the SPD wants to make the state a hub for national and international night trains. Freight on rail and inland waterways is also to receive more support. Accessibility, digitalization and a faster pace of innovation are part of the plan.

The SPD wants to give walking and cycling a much bigger role and to rebuild transport infrastructure for this, especially in municipalities. Bike path networks are to grow and bike highways are to be built quickly. The guiding goal is Vision Zero, meaning no deaths or serious injuries in road traffic.

The SPD wants to do more for people who walk or ride bikes. There should be more and better bike paths. Roads should become safer. The goal is that nobody dies or gets badly hurt in traffic. The state should give cities money for this.

A dedicated unit for local mobility is to be set up in the state transport ministry. For the bike highways already designated, the SPD wants to use new federal options to speed up planning and construction. Concrete targets for cycling and local mobility are to be agreed with municipalities and backed with funding. Support would go to redesigning existing road space and to bike paths, bike parking, service stations and charging points for e-bikes and pedelecs.

The SPD wants a mobility guarantee that ensures everyone in the state can get from their front door to the nearest public transit connection, so rural areas benefit too. Rail lines are to be electrified, reopened and extended. A statewide app with per-kilometer billing is meant to make transit easier to use.

The SPD wants to make buses and trains better. Everyone should be able to get from home to the next bus or train. This also applies in the countryside. Old rail lines should run again. There should be one app for all of NRW. With it, people pay only for the kilometers they travel.

The mobility guarantee is meant to ensure access to local transit starting from people's homes. In the Ruhr region, the SPD supports efforts to better coordinate the many municipal transit plans and to improve connections across city limits. Accessible mobility stations that link different modes of transport are to receive special support. The SPD wants to promote rail freight together with Deutsche Bahn in order to relieve the roads.

The SPD wants to give school students a free transit pass, raise state subsidies for the Sozialticket (reduced-fare pass for low-income riders) and cut the price of the trainee pass. In the long run, local transit is to be usable without a ticket and paid for through a shared levy, with a 365-euro annual pass as an interim step. Transit is to be expanded under public ownership.

The SPD wants to make buses and trains cheaper. School students should ride for free. Trainees should pay less. Later, nobody should need a ticket at all. Then everyone pays a shared fee for buses and trains. One step toward that is a pass for 365 euros a year.

The many special passes and monthly tickets for young people are to be scrapped; the free student pass is meant to relieve school authorities, municipalities and transit companies of red tape. The trainee pass is to be priced in line with university student passes. The state and federal governments are to cover a larger share of operating costs so municipalities and transit associations can expand service; the goal is a single statewide fare system. The SPD wants to stand up for collective bargaining and social standards for transit workers. It considers the privatization of local transit a failure.

The SPD wants to keep investing in the upkeep of state roads and to support municipalities in this, since roads remain the main mode of transport. It backs the federal transport infrastructure plan for 2030 and the rebuilding of the Rahmede valley bridge on the A45 highway. At the same time, more freight is to move to rail and waterways, and electric mobility is to be promoted.

Most people and goods travel by road. So the SPD wants to keep the state's roads in good shape. A broken highway bridge near Lüdenscheid should be rebuilt quickly. More goods should travel by train and ship. There should be more charging stations for electric cars.

According to the platform, roads carry about 70 percent of both passenger and freight traffic. For the federal highway company Autobahn GmbH, the SPD calls for a political advisory board that gives the state oversight and a voice. In the federal transport plan, the focus is on priority projects that remove bottlenecks. Residents, the city of Lüdenscheid, neighboring municipalities and businesses affected by the closed Rahmede valley bridge are to receive relief. Charging infrastructure for electric vehicles is to be expanded.

The SPD wants to keep the state's decentralized airport system and keep the Cologne/Bonn cargo airport open around the clock. A state aviation plan is meant to give airports planning certainty, while residents are to be better protected from noise. At the federal and EU level, it wants to push for equal conditions across all modes of transport, for example on taxing jet fuel.

The SPD wants to keep the airports in NRW. Cologne/Bonn airport should always be open for cargo, even at night. People living nearby should be better protected from noise. Loud and dirty planes should pay higher fees. The SPD also wants jet fuel to be taxed.

To protect residents from aircraft noise and other emissions, the SPD wants to press for the use of modern aircraft. Takeoff and landing fees are to vary more strongly by environmental criteria, including when operating hours are exceeded. Competitive distortions between air travel and other modes such as rail are to be removed. To that end, the SPD wants to lobby in Berlin and Brussels for harmonized rules, particularly on jet fuel taxation and workers' rights.

The SPD wants to move considerably more freight from roads to waterways and to develop the state as a port and logistics location. It wants to press the federal government for faster repair and expansion of the waterways. A state funding program is meant to make inland shipping more environmentally friendly.

NRW has many rivers, canals and ports. The SPD wants more goods to travel by ship instead of by truck. Canals and locks should be repaired faster. Ports should have room to grow. Ships should produce less exhaust.

The platform points to 720 kilometers of inland waterways and about 120 ports in the state and sees unused capacity for freight there. It calls for faster raising of bridges to allow stacked container traffic, larger turning basins, more sites connected to water, rail and road, and a second lock for the port of Dortmund. Land for port development is to be secured. The SPD wants to lobby the federal government for better links to the ports in Belgium and the Netherlands. A state program is to cut emissions from ships' diesel engines.

The SPD wants to support inland shipping operators based in North Rhine-Westphalia with a program of grants and loans. It also wants to press the federal government for tax changes that make shore power easier to use.

The SPD wants to help river shippers in North Rhine-Westphalia. They should get grants and loans. Ships should be able to use power from land more easily. Tax rules that stand in the way should go.

The funding program is to be set up together with NRW.Bank, the state's development bank. The SPD wants to lobby the federal government to remove tax obstacles to supplying inland vessels with shore power. It also wants to examine bringing back the so-called negative certificate for oversized and heavy-load transports.