The most punctual rail countries in Europe – where is Deutsche Bahn?

2023-09-16 20:11:00

While neighboring countries such as Austria and Switzerland pride themselves on their punctual trains, Deutsche Bahn sets one negative record after another year after year. In 2017, a good 86 percent of their trains arrived less than 15 minutes late. Now, an evaluation by the Federal Ministry of Transport published on Friday shows that in 2022 almost one in three long-distance travelers arrived at his or her destination at least 15 minutes later than planned. In rail jargon: so-called passenger punctuality has decreased again, not to be confused with train delays themselves.

One of the reasons why things are going so badly in Germany is because of the rail system. Last year there were many construction sites and route closures on the railway network – the railway infrastructure itself is dilapidated. People’s need to have accessible public train transport is growing. What is also growing is dissatisfaction with the company’s unreliability. Things are going better in other European countries.

Wissing is making 40 billion euros available to the railway

“The many affected passengers suffer from an infrastructure that can no longer handle an increasing number of trains,” says Matthias Gastel, rail policy spokesman for the Greens in the Bundestag. At the same time, in 2022 the federal government was far behind in a European comparison when it came to per capita investments in rail infrastructure. This is shown by an evaluation published in July by Allianz pro Schiene, a non-profit transport alliance. The state spent 114 euros per person, behind only Spain (67 euros) and France (46 euros). Countries like Luxembourg (575 euros per capita), Switzerland (450 euros) and Norway (346 euros) invested significantly more in their rail network.

The fact that this austerity program will only make the rails more dilapidated in the long term and thus lead to more delays for travelers also seems to have been accepted by the federal government. On Friday, Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) promised the railways 40 billion euros to completely renovate highly polluted routes by 2030. Frankfurt-Mannheim, for example, Berlin-Hamburg or Emmerich-Oberhausen in North Rhine-Westphalia. Before this has an impact, the routes will have to be completely closed for months – so train passengers will continue to need patience.

The railway publishes monthly how many stops were reached with less than six minutes delay (in August 63.4 percent for long-distance transport). However, it cannot be concluded from this how often connections were missed or trains were completely canceled. Traveler punctuality is therefore closer to the passengers’ actual travel experience because a missed connection also influences the statistics. It is also recorded by the railways, but is not published regularly.

Sources: Train finder, Statesman, German railway, ÖBB, Pro-rail alliance, TrainlineWith information from news agencies