Germany Mulls Massive Transport Projects

German Minister of Transportation Manfred Stolpe announced on Wednesday a capital spending program of two billion euros ($2.6 billion) for the modernization and expansion of the transportation infrastructure across Germany over the next three years. Of the two billion euros that the cabinet members agreed on, 900 million euros will be allotted for highways, 750 million for railroads, and 350 million for waterways. The program, which will be funded out of federal budgetary resources, is expected to secure 60,000 jobs, according to Stolpe. Opposition Christian Democrats criticized the program as insufficient. The president of the transportation committee of the German parliament, Eduard Osswald, called it a sham package and stressed that the projected yearly investments of 500 million euros could not even compensate for the capital spending cutbacks which were placed in 2005.