German Railways is in crisis: every third long-distance train of Deutsche Bahn is regularly delayed
The concern explains the deplorable situation as an "unfortunate combination of adverse circumstances." In addition to technical and weather difficulties, there are problems with transporting refugees.
Chronic delays of ICE trains have forced the management of Deutsche Bahn to admit the current state of affairs as unsatisfactory: trains are regularly delayed (according to the concern's strict criteria, a delay is considered arriving at the destination station five minutes later than the scheduled time), and often they have to be canceled entirely due to technical malfunctions. They also deprive passengers of desired comfort: air conditioning does not work in summer, heating in winter, and the dining car is often closed due to technical problems.
On particularly difficult days for railway workers, every passenger of German Railways misses their planned transfer. "The company is aware of the existing problems and is making every possible effort to reduce them," promises improvements the press service of Deutsche Bahn.
Currently, the concern is unable to meet its own quality standards for passenger transport, according to which more than 80 percent of trains should punctually complete their scheduled routes. German trains last met these requirements at the beginning of this year. Unfortunately, since then delays have become an increasingly constant problem.
One of the reasons is the renewal of the railway network. In the next five years, Deutsche Bahn will spend 28 billion euros on maintaining and developing infrastructure. The consequence of large investments is the constantly growing number of construction sites and repair zones on railway tracks throughout Germany. "These large-scale investments affect the punctuality of trains and, in turn, the current statistics," reminds the chairman of the board of the joint-stock company, Rüdiger Grube.
Furthermore, German Railways has long complained about delays in the delivery of new trains and their overall shortage. The concern is constantly operating at its limits; often there is nothing to replace a broken-down train. On Fridays and Saturdays, everything that can still move is put into service: "We no longer have any reserve," notes a press release from Deutsche Bahn. On days of major disruptions, traffic planners literally have to juggle carriages, locomotives, and entire trains, which regularly changes the arrangement of carriages and, consequently, reserved seats. On such difficult days, up to a third of trains are presented to the platforms in the wrong order.
The unprecedented influx of refugees into Germany exacerbates the dramatic situation on the country's railways. On the one hand, the concern has to provide special trains for transporting refugees, and Deutsche Bahn has no spare trains: preparing each special train means that somewhere else in the German railway network, a regular train is simply canceled. On the other hand, the difficulties arising from the masses of people seeking help in Germany leave their mark on train traffic not only in the southeast of Germany, where rail service on the Salzburg–Munich route has currently been suspended.
Currently, passengers from Austria reach the Bavarian capital by a detour via Passau. This route takes more time. ICE long-distance trains starting from Munich to all parts of Germany wait for connecting passengers as much as possible, which affects the entire schedule for the rest of the day: if the morning intercity express from Munich to Hamburg starts later than scheduled, its return trip will also depart with a delay.
As Russkaya Germaniya notes, another German monopoly giant, Deutsche Post, has also been facing the problem of delays recently. Due to staff shortages, postal items sometimes are delayed by a week or even longer, and the number of cases of non-delivery has sharply increased. Postal managers promise to fix the situation as soon as possible.