Transport system · Economy
Transport and the economy
An export economy built on manufacturing depends on goods arriving on time and on workers reaching their jobs. This sheet traces how transport infrastructure supports industry, small and medium-sized firms and regional labour markets, using official figures. It also sets out how Federal Transport Minister Steffen Bilger has described that link.
Section A — the link
Why infrastructure is an economic question
German manufacturing works in long, finely timed chains. A car plant may receive parts from hundreds of suppliers, many of them medium-sized firms (the Mittelstand) in smaller towns, delivered by lorry to the hour. Chemical plants on the Rhine receive raw materials by ship and rail. Finished goods leave through the seaports, the airports and the rail corridors to the rest of Europe.
Every link in that chain depends on public infrastructure. When it fails, costs rise quickly. A closed motorway bridge adds kilometres and hours to every lorry trip in a region. Low water on the Rhine means ships can carry only part of their usual load. An unreliable rail corridor pushes freight back onto the road. The logistics sheet traces the supply chain step by step, and freight transport gives the full modal figures.
Transport also moves labour. Destatis data for 2024 show that one in five commuters travels 25 kilometres or more to work. Companies in the industrial belts around Stuttgart, Munich or the Rhine-Ruhr rely on workers commuting in from a wide surrounding area. A region's road and rail connections therefore shape where firms can find staff and where people can take a job.
Infographic
Where the transport work is done
The 671.1 billion tonne-kilometres of freight transport recorded by Destatis for 2024 (sea shipping excluded), split by mode. Band widths are proportional. Shares are our own calculation from the Destatis table.
Lorries do about seven-tenths of the work. Industry's resilience therefore rests first on the Autobahn and its bridges, which are financed partly by the truck toll that hauliers pay.
Rail and waterways carry heavy, bulk and long-distance flows for steel, chemicals, energy and the car industry. Their share is smaller, but for some plants they cannot be replaced.
Tonne-kilometres measure transport work, not economic value. A lorry of electronics and a barge of gravel count the same per tonne. No value-weighted figure is shown here because no verified one was available.
Example
An industrial region: Ludwigsburg
Bilger's own constituency, just north of Stuttgart, shows the link between infrastructure and industry on a small scale. The details below are drawn from public sources and are illustrative, not a full economic profile.
- Road
- A 81 Stuttgart–Heilbronn–Würzburg; federal roads B 10 and B 27
- Rail
- S-Bahn Stuttgart lines S4, S5 and S6. The Mannheim–Stuttgart high-speed line stops at Vaihingen (Enz). Kornwestheim marshalling yard is the second largest in Baden-Württemberg.
- Industry
- Vehicle manufacturing, metalworking and plastics. Bosch's development site at Schwieberdingen employed about 6,500 people in 2018, working among other things on high-voltage batteries for electric cars. Porsche's development centre is in Weissach. The filter maker Mann+Hummel is headquartered in Ludwigsburg.
- Pressure points
- Commuter traffic into Stuttgart. The local Stadtbahn debate: in November 2025 Ludwigsburg's council halted most of the planned tram route.
The region's dependence on the car industry also explains why debates about the combustion engine and the energy transition in transport carry particular economic weight there. Local politics is covered on Ludwigsburg and constituency.
Documented statements
How Bilger links transport and the economy
His statements as minister consistently put supply chains, industry and working people at the centre. Below are his own words, with the occasions.
Wir investieren genau da, wo es jetzt zählt: in die Lebensrealität der Menschen vor Ort – für den Alltag heute und für unsere Zukunft.
“We are investing exactly where it counts now: in people's everyday lives where they live, for today and for our future.” (translation)
Steffen Bilger, Bundestag budget speech, 8 September 2026
Europa braucht bei eSAF nicht nur ambitionierte Ziele, sondern Investitionen in die industrielle Produktion.
“When it comes to eSAF, Europe needs not just ambitious targets but investment in industrial production.” (translation)
Steffen Bilger, BMV press release 088/2026, 21 September 2026
Mein Ziel ist klar: Wir wollen jetzt gemeinsam mit sicheren Lieferketten durch diese Niedrigwasserphase kommen.
“My aim is clear: together, we want to get through this low-water phase with secure supply chains.” (translation)
Steffen Bilger, BMV press release 075/2026, 12 August 2026
Wir haben nicht nur den deutschen Markt, sondern als Automobilland Deutschland verkaufen wir die Autos in die ganze Welt.
“We don't only have the German market; as a car-making country, Germany sells cars to the whole world.” (translation)
Steffen Bilger, RTL/ntv, 8 October 2025 (as First Parliamentary Secretary) — via Berliner Zeitung
At the ministry handover on 29 July 2026 he named functioning supply chains for the economy as one of the purposes of transport policy, alongside commuters and families. In his budget speech he said the government would invest about €170 billion in transport to 2030. That is a total across budget lines and the special fund; this site has not been able to break it down independently.
Section B — debate
Where the disagreement lies
Nobody in German politics disputes that infrastructure matters to the economy. The disagreements are about money and priorities. Business associations and the governing coalition point to record investment levels, financed largely by the €500 billion special fund. Opposition parties argue that the core budget is shrinking behind those headlines. In the September 2026 budget debate the Greens' Tarek Al-Wazir said there was not enough money for investment and that no new rail projects could start the following year. The Left's Sascha Wagner saw neither transparent nor sustainable financing. Rail associations criticised cuts to rail-freight support as a risk to industry's planning security.
A second disagreement is about which modes to favour. The rail sector and environmental groups want more freight shifted from road to rail. Road-haulage interests and parts of industry stress that the Autobahn carries most of the work. Bilger's own formula, "all modes, where they are strong", deliberately avoids choosing between them. The economic-policy dimension of his record is discussed on economy and mobility and infrastructure investment.
Sources
- Destatis — Güterbeförderung nach Verkehrsträgern (2024)
- ZDFheute — Almost two thirds commute by car (Destatis, Mikrozensus 2024) (May 2025)
- Deutscher Bundestag, hib — 2027 transport budget draft (19 Aug 2026)
- Bundesregierung — Speech by Steffen Bilger on the 2027 budget (8 Sep 2026)
- Deutscher Bundestag — Budget debate, transport (8 Sep 2026)
- Bundesregierung — Special fund for infrastructure and climate neutrality
- BMV — Press release 070/2026: handover (29 Jul 2026)
- BMV — Press release 075/2026: low water (12 Aug 2026)
- BMV — Press release 088/2026: eSAF (21 Sep 2026)
- BMV — Press release 079/2026: single-wagon traffic (28 Aug 2026)
- Berliner Zeitung — Bilger on the combustion-engine phase-out (8 Oct 2025)
- Wikipedia (German) — Landkreis Ludwigsburg (transport links, industries)
- electrive — Bosch invests €77 million in Schwieberdingen site (9 Aug 2018)
- steffen-bilger.de — Places in the constituency
- heidelberg24 — The largest companies in Ludwigsburg (9 Aug 2023)
- Stuttgarter Zeitung — Ludwigsburg council votes against tram (Nov 2025)
- VerkehrsRundschau — Transport budget in the Bundestag (Sep 2026)