Morning Briefing: Bahn CEO Palla receives praise from entrepreneur Herrenknecht
The tunnel construction entrepreneur has praise for the head of the railways, Evelyn Palla. Herrenknecht demands that politicians give her their full backing – which she could use.
Good morning, dear readers, tunnel construction entrepreneur Martin Herrenknecht likes to speak his mind. The 84-year-old can not only rant, but also praise. In an interview with our Baden-Württemberg correspondent Martin Buchenau, Herrenknecht expressly praises Deutsche Bahn's CEO Evelyn Palla. At the same time, the entrepreneur sees the danger that Palla's good approaches will be torn apart by competing interests.
He warns: Herrenknecht demands "full support" from the new transport minister Steffen Bilger for Palla. She can use it: the German rail operator Deutsche Bahn had to admit that on the Berlin-Hamburg route, after months of closure and billion-euro renovation, only every fourth train arrived on time. Perhaps that's why Bilger demanded that the bonuses of Deutsche Bahn's management board be linked to punctuality targets. What he specifically wants to change remains unclear, because that's already the case.
The replacement of Bilger's predecessor as transport minister is considered correct by the entrepreneur. His justification: Herrenknecht would not be Herrenknecht without criticism of the sluggish implementation of infrastructure projects in Germany. He talks about a "tragedy", "planning madness" and "German engineers' overconfidence" - Herrenknecht is one himself, incidentally.
Translated by urgent.news from Handelsblatt's report; automated translation may contain errors. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.
