German Transport Minister Volker Wissing has said that Deutsche Bahn must make cost cuts, improve profitability, and reduce delays “considerably, in the short term”.

Deutsche Bahn trains must improve by 2027, says Wissing

Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) has publicly pushed Deutsche Bahn to improve punctuality, particularly on long-distance trains, while making administrative and management cuts to save money and make public transport more profitable.

A recent report by the rail company concluded that passengers can no longer rely on trains running as advertised and are instead facing delay after cancellation after delay. 

According to Süddeutsche Zeitung, timetables have had to be changed between 2 and 3 million times in 2024 so far. “Timetables are no longer calculated, but only estimated,” the Deutsche Bahn advisory board admitted in its report.

Wissing said Deutsche Bahn bosses had until 2027 to develop a services and finance improvement plan, demanding quarterly improvement updates be issued to the Federal Ministry for Transport in the meantime.

While Deutsche Bahn is a joint stock company, meaning company shares can be bought and sold at any time, the Federal Republic of Germany is the single shareholder of Deutsche Bahn.

"I will be personally informed if a target is missed in a quarter,” Wissing said at a speech in Berlin, adding that “streamlining” of Deutsche Bahn was necessary and that more should be done to improve the productivity of employees.

Deutsche Bahn caused “German efficiency” mask to slip during Euro 2024

Already stretched thin from years of underinvestment and failure to replace decaying infrastructure, Deutsche Bahn's shortcomings were exposed in the international press over the summer as millions of football fans travelled around Germany by train for the Euro 2024 tournament.

The new-found infamy means more pressure on Deutsche Bahn to address transport failures, which were already widely acknowledged by the German public.

Improvements are on the way, with the company beginning a mass construction project shortly after the football tournament ended. In the meantime, however, disruptions are expected to increase during the construction project, which will be implemented incrementally until 2030.

Some of the country’s busiest train stretches have already been closed since early or mid-August, including the line between Berlin and Hamburg, which is scheduled to reopen on December 14, 2024 and the Riedbahn line between Frankfurt and Mannheim, also scheduled to reopen on December 14, 2024.

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