Programmatic Action in German Transport Policy – Shared Identities of Actors Surrounding the Deutschlandtakt

Infrastructure policy requires transformation in order to meet the objectives of climate and environmental protection. For this purpose, long-term (inter)national policy programs are elaborated and implemented to change the relevant sectors for decades. With the Deutschlandtakt, German transport policy has launched a policy program designed to significantly increase the attractiveness of rail transport. The program was developed and put on the political agenda by a small group of stakeholders who are not directly involved in policymaking. Today, the program is supported by various actors from politics, administration, business and associations, and was set as a goal in the German government's recent coalition agreement. Using the Programmatic Action Framework (PAF), this paper examines the actors who led this change, what binds them together, and how their joint promotion of the policy program can be explained. In doing so, we focus on the role of biographical intersections, institutionalized forums, and a resulting programmatic identity for their cooperation. Methodologically, this is done through document and media analyses, biography analyses, and narrative interviews. The paper identifies the actor network behind the Deutschlandtakt and shows that pre-existing shared social identities can be a key factor in the formation of a programmatic identity.