Rail departure

Stefan Garber, the director of infrastructure at Deutsche Bahn, must step down from his post at the beginning of next year, reportedly over his refusal to accept bonus caps among other changes to his contract.

The supervisory board of the state-run railway company made the decision on Wednesday to discharge 54-year-old Garber, who had been in his position since 2005.

The company has recently adopted new measures proposed by the federal government's "Public Corporate Governance Code", which includes foregoing "exorbitant" bonus rewards.

German media cited sources who said Garber refused to give up a part of his annual bonus. In 2008, his estimated income was just over one million euros, of which 617,000 was bonus compensation.

The railway company's announced that long-serving chief financial officer Diethelm Sack will also leave the organization at the end of March 2010.

Sack had planned to leave last spring after Deutsch Bahn was racked by scandal for spying on its employees' health records, but was asked to stay on to help the company through a period of transition under new chief executive Ruediger Grube.

Stuttgart 21 gets the green light

Meanwhile, Deutsche Bahn announced on Thursday that its four-million-euro railway project, Stuttgart 21, will begin construction next year.

The controversial project includes the complete renovation of Stuttgart's main railway station, improved links to the airport, and the construction of a new high-speed line to Ulm.

The initial budget was set at 3 billion euros, with leeway for a possible 1.5 billion more. However, revised drafts revealed it would be far more expensive than originally planned.

As a result, Deutsche Bahn, the city of Stuttgart, state authorities and other investors will have to contribute an additional one billion euros of funds that had been earmarked for risk management.

Preliminary construction on the project is expected to start as early as February.

vj/AP/dpa/Reuters
Editor: Sam Edmonds