Politics · Regions
Regional development: infrastructure and the places it connects
Federal transport decisions land in specific places: a bridge over the Rhine, a lock on the Danube, a canal in Schleswig-Holstein, a commuter line north of Stuttgart. This page follows Steffen Bilger's regional record, from his roots in Baden-Württemberg to the places he has visited and funded as minister, and explains how responsibility is shared between the federal government and the Länder.
- Home region
- Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg
- Party base
- Chair, CDU district North Württemberg, since 2011
- Places on file
- 5 regional items, Aug–Sep 2026
- Sources
- BMV press releases, Bundestag, press
Section A — roots
A Württemberg politician
Bilger grew up in Backnang and has represented the Ludwigsburg constituency, just north of Stuttgart, since 2009. Since 2011 he has also chaired the CDU's North Württemberg district association, the largest of the party's four districts in Baden-Württemberg.
The region is a showcase of the issues national transport policy deals with. The A 81 motorway and the B 10 and B 27 federal roads carry heavy commuter and freight traffic. Stuttgart's S-Bahn lines S4, S5 and S6 run through the district, and Kornwestheim has the second-largest marshalling yard in Baden-Württemberg. The high-speed line from Mannheim to Stuttgart stops at Vaihingen an der Enz. Manufacturing accounts for about 37 per cent of employees in the Landkreis, with vehicle manufacturing and its suppliers prominent.
Local transport decisions are made locally. In November 2025 Ludwigsburg's municipal council voted to stop planning a light-rail line through the town, keeping only the reactivation of the existing line to Markgröningen. No statement by Bilger on that decision was found, which illustrates a broader point: much of what residents experience as "transport policy" is decided by municipalities and the Land, not in Berlin. The Ludwigsburg and constituency pages give the local picture.
Place register
Five places in the first ten weeks
Regional items from his first weeks as minister, plotted on a schematic north–south line. The positions are indicative and not to scale.
- 1
Kiel Canal
The Nord-Ostsee-Kanal links the North Sea and the Baltic and saves ships a detour of about 450 km around Denmark. The ministry is abolishing the fee for leisure boats from 1 January 2027 (about 10,000 boats a year; €12–43 per passage), because collecting it cost more than it raised. Bilger:
Wir wollen Bürokratie dort abbauen, wo sie den Menschen keinen Mehrwert bringt.
("We want to cut bureaucracy where it brings people no added value.") On his summer tour he also visited the Rader Hochbrücke, the A 7 bridge over the canal, the first half of whose replacement is due by the end of 2026. - 2
Rhine low water
In August 2026 the federal and state governments agreed to step up measures against low water on the Rhine to keep supply chains running. Bilger:
Resilienz entsteht nicht über Nacht.
("Resilience does not happen overnight.") The Greens argued that he should acknowledge low water as a consequence of climate change. - 3
B 293: second Rhine bridge
The federal government approved the revised plans for a second Rhine bridge between Wörth and Karlsruhe, bringing building permission "within reach", in the ministry's words. Bilger called it an important step towards the new B 293 that the region urgently awaits. Final building permission is still to come.
- 4
Ludwigsburg
His constituency since 2009 and the base of his party career. See Section A and the Ludwigsburg page.
- 5
Kachlet double lock, Danube
Bilger broke ground near Passau for the overhaul of the nearly 100-year-old Kachlet double lock, costed at about €380 million. In the Bundestag he said special-fund money means
auch Schleusen und Wasserwege können endlich saniert werden
("locks and waterways can finally be renovated too").
Section C — federalism
Working with the Länder
Germany's sixteen Länder (states) are partners, and sometimes opponents, in almost every transport decision that affects regions.
The main forum is the Verkehrsministerkonferenz (VMK), the conference of the transport ministers of the Länder, in which the federal government takes part on joint matters such as the Deutschlandticket. On 30 September 2026 the VMK set the Deutschlandticket price for 2027 at €66.80, applying a price index agreed earlier in the year. The decision was joint: federal and state governments each contribute to the €3 billion annual subsidy. NRW's transport minister Oliver Krischer (Greens) criticised the rise, while Bilger defended it as necessary to keep services running.
The Rhine low-water summit in August followed the same pattern: waterways are federal, but ports, industry and regional planning involve the Länder. And the Bundesrat, where the Länder are represented, had to approve the Infrastruktur-Zukunftsgesetz on planning acceleration, which it did on 10 July 2026, before Bilger took office.
Regional rail services are ordered by the Länder and paid for largely with federal regionalisation funds. Closures of DB lines for renovation therefore affect services the Länder have bought, which is one reason state governments press the federal ministry on the corridor programme. The connectivity side is covered on Regional connectivity.
Two open questions
Rural connections and structural change
Two regional issues where the documented record is thin and the policy context does most of the work.
Rural connectivity
Documented
The ministry's €14 million funding call for autonomous vehicles (31 August 2026, applications until 15 October) covers public transport in rural and outer-urban areas and model regions, among other uses. The release links such systems to closing gaps in rural connections and to staff shortages. No broader statement by Bilger on rural mobility as minister was found.
Policy context
In many rural districts buses run rarely, and the car is the default. A flat-rate ticket helps only where services exist, which is why rural interests often argue for more frequent services rather than cheaper fares. See Mobility & society.
Structural change in automotive regions
Documented
Bilger has argued, as parliamentary manager in October 2025, for loosening the EU's 2035 combustion-engine ban with reference to Germany as a car-exporting country. No specific statement by him as minister on job losses or structural change ("Strukturwandel") in automotive regions was found.
Policy context
Regions such as Stuttgart and Ludwigsburg depend heavily on carmakers and suppliers whose products are changing with the shift to electric drives. Regional economic support is mostly a matter for the economics ministries and the Länder. The economic arguments are on Economy & Mobility.
Sources
- Deutscher Bundestag — Steffen Bilger, biography
- Deutscher Bundestag (archive, 19th term) — Steffen Bilger
- Wikipedia (German) — Landkreis Ludwigsburg (transport links, employment)
- Stuttgarter Zeitung — Gemeinderat stimmt gegen Straßenbahn in Ludwigsburg (19 Nov 2025)
- Deutscher Bundestag — Debate on the 2027 transport budget (8 Sep 2026)
- BMV press release 085/2026 — Nord-Ostsee-Kanal (14 Sep 2026)
- Stuttgarter Zeitung — Warum der neue Verkehrsminister zweite Klasse fährt (summer tour, Rader Hochbrücke) (11 Aug 2026)
- BMV press release 075/2026 — Niedrigwasser (12 Aug 2026)
- Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung — Grüne: Neuer Verkehrsminister muss mehr fürs Klima tun (8 Aug 2026)
- BMV press release 086/2026 — B 293: zweite Rheinbrücke (15 Sep 2026)
- BMV press release 072/2026 — Doppelschleuse Kachlet (3 Aug 2026)
- Bundesregierung — Speech by Steffen Bilger on the 2027 budget (8 Sep 2026)
- Lok-Report — Verkehrsministerkonferenz: Deutschlandticket ab 2027 (30 Sep 2026)
- evangelisch.de (epd) — Kritik an teurerem Deutschlandticket (30 Sep 2026)
- VerkehrsRundschau — Bundestag beschließt Infrastruktur-Zukunftsgesetz (26 Jun 2026)
- BMV press release 080/2026 — Autonomes Fahren (31 Aug 2026)
- Berliner Zeitung — Bilger on the combustion-engine ban (8 Oct 2025)