Germans cut back
Page 18
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
A DRASTIC cutback in plans to expand West Germany's autobahn system has been ordered in Bonn as part of the country's policy of cutting public expenditure, reports our Brussels correspondent.
The Government has applied its red pencil to the road-building programme which will be given the equivalent of f100m less than last year, and traffic planners doubt if it will now be possible to realise the aim of building an extra 3,000km of autobahn over the next 20 years.
Only roads which are now under construction will be completed this year, the sole new projects will be urgent work to remove accident blackspots and by-pass traffic bottlenecks.
The German railways won't escape the axe either. Though new Transport Minister Volker Hauff has stressed the importance of further development of combined transport systems, according to this month's reports, the railway budget is being cut by around 20 per cent.