German railway boss insists share listing does not threaten service

FRANKFURT (AFP) - A stock market listing of Deutsche Bahn shares does not mean unprofitable regional rail service will be cut, railway boss Hartmut Mehdorn said in an interview Thursday.

"You think investors will have a list of all the lines with their respective profitablility? What matters is that the network functions as a whole," Mehdorn told the daily Die Welt.

"Of course some lines are more interesting than others," he acknowledged, "but no shareholder will provoke me by asking why we have maintained line X or Y."

Deutsche Bahn is to be partially privatised at the end of 2008 following years of discussions and setbacks.

Critics claim a subsequent search for profit will lead to the closure of some regional lines and small stations.

"What counts is the overall performance," insisted Mehdorn, who strongly supports the plan to list Deutche Bahn shares publicly, and would like to eventually see more than 24.9 percent of the company in private hands.

"We will prove that it works," he added. "Germany will still need money in the future" that could come from subsequent listings.

The German airline Lufthansa, Mehdorn noted, was also also a former state-owned monopoly that began its privatisation with the sale of 25 percent of its capital.