Deutsche Bahn’s once-admired service has descended into chaos. Whether decades of poor investment or the company’s unusual structure is to blame, it’s a huge headache for a coalition trying to meet climate goals
The sleek high-speed train is 10 minutes behind schedule when it slides into Cologne’s main station before continuing its journey north to Dortmund. The delay is now such a common occurrence that the train manager does not even both to mention it to disembarking passengers.
In late afternoon on an unremarkable weekday in this western German city, holidaymakers are hauling suitcases through the station, workers are commuting home, and the late arrival of Deutsche Bahn’s IC 118 from Innsbruck is no surprise.
It does cause annoyance, though: a glance at the departures and arrivals board prompts one middle-aged man carrying a backpack to swear loudly as he enters the station.
Former managers of Deutsche Bahn did not care to invest into modernization. Managers get money for showing and keeping plus in their Excel sheets. They leave the company with all kinds of bonuses for that and risk no repercussions.
The next generation of managers are simply fucked. They inherit all the neglected infrastructure and bad processes.
Additionally politics made it even worse. They told the managers that repairs are not a matter of subsidies. Only new infrastructure is supported. So Deutsche Bahn literally let the tracks and stations rot until they need to be totally renewed.
This all based on absolute greed. And the best is you can harm Germany for free without any risks and keep all your money. No one here would get the idea to jail the responsible people who let it happen.
Ah the British plan of a greedy corrupt right wing government that refuses to invest in the future and instead takes from it. We have shit trains too. I’d imagine much worse trains.
repairs are not a matter of subsidies. Only new infrastructure is supported.
That’s a big problem. If you incentivize a company to not maintain the infrastructure because you will pay for it once it’s completely broken it will be completely broken.
The company should still maintain the infrastructure, or pay back their consumers for every missed train. They’ve been making profit year-in year-out, the least they could do is throw some of their pocket change at the repair crew.
But most of those profits are coming from (or at least came from) DB Schenker, the trucking branch of the Deutsche Bahn. So they made their profits on the roads, not the tracks.
Ah I see, thanks for the context. Nonetheless, can’t DB take the profits from the Trucks and invest it in the Trains?
My family and I took the train from Copenhagen, Denmark to Bologna, Italy and back again this summer.
By and large it was a good experience. Taking the train through the alps is something I’ll never forget.
To my great amazement, the trains in Italy ran smoother than the trains in Germany.
On our return trip, we zipped from Bologna to Milano and from there to Frankfurt in just under nine hours. Smooth sailing. The Frecciarossa was by far the nicest train I’ve ever been on.
Frankfurt to Copenhagen, a noticeably shorter distance, ended up taking fifteen hours. Our 7:14 train out of Frankfurt Central got moved to another station a mere fifteen minutes prior to departure. From there, everything devolved into a mess of missed trains and lack of communication. I think we ended up switching trains five or six times.
Deutsche Bahn is a shadow of its former self, and it makes me profoundly sad that a nation globally known for precision and efficiency has such terrible train service.
got moved to another station a mere fifteen minutes prior to departure.
I hate these! Once we were so busy saying good bye that we didn’t notice the reschedule in the last 8 minutes or so. Missed the train, wait 1h.
How does this even work if you’re in a wheelchair or have a stroller? Half of the elevators in Munich don’t work and the other half is small and slow. It’s a gamble every time. I literally calculate 15 minutes extra every time I take a long distance train to just go from Sbahn to the long distance trains at the central station because it takes two elevators and I have a stroller with me. And with a stroller you at least can somehow unsafely (also it is forbidden) try to balance it on the escalator. If you have an electric wheelchair you can forget about that. How are these more vulnerable people supposed to get to a new train station within 15 minutes?
See, that’s where the systemic delays come in handy. No seriously, it’s a joke.
Experiences like these also leave me with a constant feeling of fear and uncertainty.
On the other hand, I can imagine there are circumstances when a short-notice rescheduling is physically necessary. Or very helpful, if it can prevent delays and missed connections for 5 other trains.
I try to use the DB App and refresh it every minute while on my way to the station, to not miss any irregularity. I try to only feel safe (for the moment) when I’m in the train, be on constant alert before. Not sure why it has to be such an adventure, but here we are.
I try to only feel safe (for the moment) when I’m in the train
Oh boy, two weeks ago I was already in the ICE when they first announced a delay of 20 minutes when the train was supposed to leave. Then a couple of minutes later the train was cancelled and everyone had to get out. We were supposed to take the next ICE that leaves in an hour.
Our ICE was fully booked. So were the other two ones that went the same day. It was either standing with a toddler for 4 hours or book a hotel for the night that won’t get reimbursed because theoretically, we could have taken one of the other two trains.
You’re never safe to relax. Not even when you are already sitting in the gorgeous baby compartment.
(The reason for the cancellation was a stupid dude who didn’t want to leave the train despite the police showing up, and he ended up not only not leaving but threatening a worker to a point that she had a mental breakdown and could not continue the journey, hence leaving a personal shortage that would not allow for the train to be operated. )
10 minutes? Ahh, if the problems with Deutsche Bahn would stop at 10 minutes late…that would almost be great.
2 hours late, trains not coming at all, skipping stops, having to take a completely different route just so you arrive at some point, but even then it’s 6 hours late. Trains being overcrowded, air conditioning failing or not being there in the first place, seat reservation systems failing, the list goes on and on.
Add to that that many smaller cities and especially villages have a single bus line that has one bus driving every 1-2 hours, but only until 8pm or whatever. Not only DB’s fault, but also of the local traffic association. Public transport is a complete joke in Germany. You need a car unless you live in a big city or don’t care about your sanity at all.
More problems include train stations often being a center for criminal activity, and smaller train stations offering no security personnel whatsoever. I know many people who are afraid to travel by train, especially after dark. And they have every reason to be, as (sexual) assault (especially towards women), robbery, drug dealing activities (list goes on) are quite the reality.
Also thought this when reading the article, multiple times I’ve had entire journies turn into a nightmare because of train not coming, 2/3/more hour late trains, and yeah local transport is a joke sometimes. The worst is the state of some the stations, Bonn is like a fucking drug camp sometimes and it seems that police and transport staff won’t do anything to make it safer or better
10 minutes behind schedule?
laughs in Amtrack
Or… any trains in the UK. They can piss off.
That’s positively early on trains around Toronto where I live… The schedule is merely a guideline
Hahaha 10minutes what a travesty hpw abput u come to australia where u will be lucky to see a train and if a bus is 30minutes late its one time.
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Phone keyboards man and the autocorrect on my offline foss mobile keyboard is non existant if anyone has suggeations for one on fdroid with tonnes of customisation lmk (currently on florisboard)
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Nar im just lazy, dont need perfect grammer anywhwre in my life. All about optimisation
Can we please appreciate that Detlef Neuss, chairman of the train passenger lobby, looks EXACTLY how we would like a chairman of the train passenger lobby to look
This is the best summary I could come up with:
“The situation has severely deteriorated in recent years,” said Detlef Neuss, chair of the passenger lobby group Pro Bahn, standing outside Cologne’s main station, in the shadow of the city’s gothic cathedral with its distinctive twin spires.
Earlier this month, after weeks of speculation over the future of Britain’s planned HS2 high-speed rail link from Birmingham to Manchester, the prime minister finally announced that the northern leg was to be scrapped.
In an excoriating special report published earlier this year, the public audit body did not mince its words as it sounded the alarm, warning that the company responsible for running the national rail network, its stations and signals, along with many long-distance and local trains, risked becoming a “bottomless pit” for taxpayer money.
Despite paying some €4,400 for an annual season ticket, in recent months Winter has had to put up with a weeks-long closure of the track between Wolfsburg and Berlin for upgrades, coupled with delays, cancelled trains and lack of staff.
The company, formed from the existing West and East German railways, was freed from previous debts with the idea that it would be able, in time, to become profitable, with the goal of boosting Germany’s GDP and floating on the stock market.
The governing agreement struck by the Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals in late 2021 committed them to doubling the capacity of passenger services by 2030, while setting a target for 25% of freight to be carried by rail by that date, and electrifying more railway lines amid attempts to meet climate goals.
The original article contains 1,887 words, the summary contains 258 words. Saved 86%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Have they been stealing French train company trade secrets? This looks oddly familiar.
