he's pushing hard and vocally to privatize the railroad
That seems to be in the job description for a minister of transportation, as it's been planned for more than 10 years now and will happen sooner or later. The question is how to preserve which level of (federal and state) control over the DB. Tiefensee is certainly too confident about market mechanisms, no one wants to repeat the British example.

"If you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles." Sun Tzu