Deutsche Bahn has announced it is changing course and will stop selling station buildings.
To date, DB has sold many former station buildings because it was difficult to maintain them. Now, however, all of the approximately 700 DB station buildings will remain in the state rail operator’s possession.
[Commenting on this, Berthold Huber, Head of Infrastructure at Deutsche Bahn, said:” text=”Stations are the gateway for passengers to their train; their buildings and forecourts are like a location’s calling card. They have to be friendly and inviting. That’s why we’re halting the sale of of our station buildings. We want to shape and develop the spaces together with our towns and municipalities.”]
Excluded from this change of course are a small number of buildings for which Deutsche Bahn has already entered contractual or pre-contractual agreements with municipalities.
Berthold Huber went on to say that attractive stations and pleasant surroundings were needed in order to drive forward the mobility transition and to raise public acceptance for environmentally friendly rail travel. Inviting station buildings were part of this.
Deutsche Bahn’s new strategy is to strength its station buildings instead of selling them. It wants to give them a comprehensive overhaul and said that good recent examples included the central stations in Halle, Cottbus and Saarlouis.
