Lutz train conductor to report: How much does a punctual train cost?

economy

Sunday, November 11, 2018

The daily chaos of Deutsche Bahn continues. Now, the state corporation will probably want the federal government to provide billions of additional dollars. The next meeting of the supervisory board will be "very intense," promised Transport Minister Scheuer.

For Deutsche Bahn pbadengers, traveling in October was more often badociated with waiting. Only 71.8% of the Intercity, Eurocity and ICE companies arrived on time – which is the definition of the public company: less than six minutes after the scheduled time. This is the second weakest monthly figure this year, after a slight improvement in the quota in September, which stood at 72.7%.

As the "Bild am Sonntag" indicates, the train is asking the federal government, for the next four years, about 4.9 billion euros, about 4.9 billion euros. euros, in order to improve the punctuality of their trains. This is one of the key messages of the 200-page report titled "Our Better Rail Agenda", which the Executive Board has now sent to the members of the Supervisory Board. On 22 and 23 November, an extraordinary session of the panel will take place. A spokesman for the railways said that, at their request, they would not comment before the meeting of the supervisory board. The results would be announced after the meeting.

Federal Minister of Transport Andreas Scheuer (CSU) told the newspaper: "The meeting of the Supervisory Board will be a very intensive strategy meeting, and I would like the measures adopted to lead to significant improvements for the customers. of rail transport by spring 2019. " He wanted a modern infrastructure, more punctuality and fewer train cancellations due to technical defects. For even greater financial resources, measures and a strategy must be agreed exactly.

Weather, vandalism and fires

The company was responsible for the October delays, including the fire of an ICE, which was blocking for several days the Cologne-Frankfurt high-speed line. After the general timetable, trains on both lanes are only available from 18 November. In addition, the local traffic suffered from the blockage of the road because long-distance trains were diverted on its roads. 92.6% of the regional trains were at the time. This is the worst monthly value this year.

The head of the railway company, Richard Lutz, actually wanted to reach the 82% of long-distance trains. He had abandoned this goal in July. Instead, a rate below 80% is to be expected. A turnaround is expected in the second half of the year – but so far, this has not happened.

More on this topic

The delays are not due mainly to the many construction sites. In September, not only storms, vandalism and cable fires, but also train disruptions caused delays. In July, extreme heat hit the track. Also in August, high temperatures and drought caused runway fires. Managing Director Lutz nevertheless issued an urgent appeal to his leaders to do more to fight the delays.

Expansion is now a top priority

Scheuer had just announced, a few days ago, an enlargement of the main railway junctions. This should eliminate throttling bottlenecks and shorten driving times. The construction and construction as well as the electrification of railway lines are also planned. These are billions of projects designed in the medium and long term. To this end, the ministry has clbadified many federal railway plan projects in the first category. This means that these projects are now planned and implemented urgently.

The railway nodes are Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hanover, Cologne, Mannheim and Munich. Scheuer said the problems at these junctions are largely responsible for the delays.

If you want to know what problems Deutsche Bahn is facing and why there is virtually no visible improvement, listen this issue of "Wieder has been learned", the podcast of n-tv.de.