In Germany, where trains were never asked to walk late, a route is now restricted if it is least late. Since 2022, only 62% of trains run correctly in neighboring Switzerland compared to 99%. Very long delay is common, and trips are likely to be completely canceled as they are for premature ending. Constant problems increase from strike and weather conditions. If especially hot or cool, passengers are facing more problems.
Traveling in Germany often requires steel time, patience and nerves. In 2024, Dutash Ban (DB) paid the passengers about € 200 million ($ 232 million) in compensation, which was approximately € 70 million more than the previous year.
DB CEO Richard Lutz said in May 2025, “Dutash Ban is going through its biggest crisis in 30 years.”
The run-down DB Network consists of about 33.500 km (19.800 mi) track. As a state-down company, DB has been dependent on subsidy from the federal government, which has been invested very little in the infrastructure for decades.
“We cannot ensure stable operations on the old infrastructure that is prone to failure,” said that.
DB infrastructure endavors
Some tracks, rail, switch and signal boxes of Germany are in the 19th century. Many of them are so rands that they can repair or are so old that they are not compatible with digital controlled rail operations that are going to be standard.
The general renewal program of DB, which was launched in 2024, focuses on 41 lines, with a distance of 4.200 km, which is required for a high-demonstration network. This is the history of the largest overhalin DB to date.
A 70 -kilometer stretch between Frankfurt M. Main and Manhem, known as a redban, to be closed earlier. In six months, rail and ballast, 152 switches and 140 km overhead line were torn and re -installed. Twenty stations, signaling techniques and noise obstacles were renewed. This gymnastics is more complex than expected to install digital technology and the cost exceeded € 1.5 billion – basically an estimated estimated.
Explosion of costs
The Federal Audit Office, which reviews the financial management of the government, accused the Transport Ministry of negligence, stating that DB should provide evidence for the economic viability of his approach. The Federal Audit Office wrote to the Bundestag Budget Committee in May, “General market prices for construction work increased manifold within a very short time.” It states that there is such a shortage of skilled workers and construction equipment.
The office determined that further funds for renewal schemes should be made available only once when the Ministry of Transport “proved beyond suspicion that thesis is necessary and economical.”
As a coniferous, DB announced that its normal renovated program would be extended to six years, by 2036.
Closing Berlin-Hamburg Line
It is followed by a 280 -km line between Germany’s largest cities, Berlin and Hamburg, which borres about 30,000 passengers in a day, making it the most used direct long distance connection in the country. It is used each day by about 230 regional, long distance and goods trains. It will close for nine months from 1 August.
Long distance trains will have to cover a distance of 100 km. Freight trains want to be prepared even more widely. Some 170 buses want to change the regional trains, which cover 86,000 km a day to maintain relations with the towns between Berlin and Hamburg. It is already already that complications and disruptions will be worse than the redban.
DB has greatly increased its plans for this huge venture. The introduction of the European Train Control System (ETCs) has been postponed by the next decade, a train conservation system to change incompatible systems used by European Railways. This is because traditional technology should still be used as not all trains are currently compatible with future systems. A DB press release in May states what it works complicated and expensive for renewal.
The original number of switch has been reduced. To ensure that rapid trains may slow down, there were more tracks to ensure that more, as well as many tracks. Even at the phase of the plan, the cost has increased to € 2.2 billion.
Required structural reform
The government of Germany has promised DB additional funds for renewal of rail lines. Federal Transport Minister Patrick Schneider (CDU) spoke of investment of € 107 billion by 2029. This money is to be larger than the infrastructure and the debt-funded special fund for climate protection which was established earlier this year.
In a report published in May, the Federal Audit Office warned that the government could not assume that the money alone would solve DB’s “permanent crisis”. The office called for a holistic strategy that includes the “adjustment” of the company’s structure, which means that clarity should be brought to disintegrate hundreds of DB holdings and subsidiaries.
Over the years, it has been discussed whether to separate more private companies and competition in the network to separate the rail infrastructure and transport. For now, there is little hope that the situation will apply to DB. The Federal Audit Office does not imagine that DW will “be” transport and climate policy to meet the expectations “which will be for the future of the future.
This article was original in German.
