German top court ruling leaves rail budget with a multi-billion euro gap

At the end of last week, the German Constitutional Court ruled that the German government’s climate policy funding mechanisms are unconstitutional. This practically means that the federal government will not be able to use capital allocated to the Climate and Transformation Fund (CTF) set up to finance climate targets. Germany must now find new ways to make money available for green investments, including rail decarbonisation and modernisation, without jeopardising the 2024 rail budget.