Delay, often several hours long, missed connections, train cancellations and dirty stations. Broken track and signal box, leading to endless track work. Bad service on trains, dirty toilets. Deutsche bahn has been in crisis for a long time.
Now everything is going to be better. With a new boss, a realistic schedule, and focus on the expectations of passers -by that trains run comfortable and firmly from B to B.
On Monday (22.9.2025) in Berlin, Transport Minister Patrick Schinider introduced his choice for Dutash Bahn’s new CEO, Evelyn Palla and presented his plan to install Germany Railways.
The 51 -year -old Austrian National Evelyn Palla told reporters in Berlin on Monday, “Today, we are taking baton for a new era. An era in which we will once again focus on what we do: running trains, railways as a lifeline of this country.” He is to replace the helpless railway boss Richard Lutz, which is at the top of the state-r-rummed company since 2017. Lutz had repeatedly warned of the dilapidated state of the railway, but for a long time, the politician paid little attention to his warning. One of his most memorable and often repeated statements: “We are taking almost three times more traffic, as is almost on the same network in 1990.”
Evelyn Palla Dutush is on the sister Board Sion 2019 and is responsible for regional transport since 2022, managing it to whip in size. In fact, local transport has recently been in black and has attracted more customers.
The Union Representative of 235,000 Deutsche Bahn Employees has expressed appreciation for taking a test to obtain his locomotive driver’s license last year and Palla for passing the exam. “I wanted to know what to sit on the driver’s seat. And so to understand what our employees do every day and what our business is,” Palla said at that time.
Lack of time ban
Minister Schneider launched a press conference in Berlin with criticism from the previous Dutush sister management, described his target of running 75 to 80% long distance trains again by 2027 as “not near to achieve”. SHNIEDER set a new target: from 2029, 70% of trains should once again be on time. This will give the railways more time to renew its chronic tracks and signal boxes, some of which have not been repaired for decades.
The current figure schnieder proves correct: In the first six months of this year, only 63.4% long -lasting trains in Germany were on time, and in July the figure was only 56.1%. In other words, more than 40% long distance trains did not come on time during the most important summer journey month of the year. Comparatively, in Denmark and Netherlands in neighboring countries, about 90% of trains run on time, and in Switzerland, this figure is up to 99%.
The Transport Minister said, “Many people equal the relaxation of the railway with the laxity of our state,” I think there is a lot of danger. ,
Germany’s National Rail Network covers about 33,500 km (20.800 mi) tracks. As a state-down company, operator Deutush Banan is dependent on subsidy from the federal government, saying that very little has been invested in infrastructure in the last few decades.
In fact, some tracks, junctions and even signal boxes are in the 19th century. Many systems are complexly worn, almost beyond repair, and are now so old that they are unusable to digitally controlled rail operations, which are to become standard.
Minister Schneider promised that the new railway management would stick to his plan to fully rebuild about 40 important routes by 2036. The busy relationship between the capital Berlin and Hamburg in the north of the country is currently being upgraded. Work started in early August and is scheduled to be completed in April next year. It is estimated to cost € 2.2 billion ($ 2.6 BN). And it brings us to the next point: money.
Billions of investment
Last year alone, about 2,000 km of tracks and 2,000 switches were replaced, around 150 bridges, and about 1,000 stations and stops were rebuilt. What is the total cost around € 16.4 billion. And the railways will receive several billion euros from a special fund of € 500 billion for infrastructure that the federal government intends to borrow to shape the country in the coming years. Schnieder announced that he was still working on a piece of law to this effect, but he intends to present the figures in the fall, showing how much receiver the new windfall of the German Railways would be. This is because a large amount of money from the fund is to accelerate the country’s digitization.
In August, Dutash sister reported a loss of € 760 million for the first half of the year. The company billed it as progress, as the loss had reduced by about € 1 billion compared to the previous year.
But when the new railway officials in Berlin were responding to the journalist, the news was that the train service in the north of the country was severely banned due to an overhead line disruption. Snow vehicles between Germany’s largest and second largest cities Hamburg and Berlin, which were being rebuilt for a long time due to the above construction work and completely canceled.
This article was original in German.
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