Last Updated on 03/09/2024 by Arun jain
German Transport Minister Volker Wiesing said in Berlin on Tuesday that the national state-owned rail company should improve punctuality, particularly for long-distance services, and to find savings in areas such as administration and management.
It is due to be completed by 2027, he said, but he wants quarterly progress reports that show whether the targets are being met.
Given that Germany’s next federal election is scheduled for September 28, 2025, Wissing is unlikely to receive many of these reports.
Bahn fails to focus post-euro in Germany, amid drive to modernize rail network
Declining punctuality, , and other rail issues have long been domestic sore points, even as Germany hosts the Euro 2024 football competition.
Horror stories from travel fans, many of whom wondered about the problems of a country once famous for its passion for punctuality and well-organized infrastructure and public transport, added some shame to the current frustration for German tourists and politicians.
Since then complicated matters, .
While it was billed as something that would eventually bring significant improvements, in the short term it would result in prolonged closures, diversions and delays on major rail lines across the country, stretching over several years in total.
What did the Transport Minister say?
The most pressing demand of Volker Wiesing of the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP) was that “significant reforms be made in the short term.”
He also wanted to see a reduction in congestion on these services.
Wissing called for the company to be “streamlined”, saying that this should particularly affect administration and management. A Transport Ministry statement on the issue said DB needed to get rid of duplicate structures and improve “staff productivity”.
“We want a reform program that lasts until 2027 and brings continuous improvements,” Wiesing said in Berlin, adding that it would also include “closely knit” observations from his ministry. “I will be personally informed if any target is missed in the quarter.”
Wissing criticized Wissing, which operates its freight and long-distance services, saying the subsidiary must optimize the use of its trains and return to more financially sustainable operations.
He also called for improvements and savings when buying new trains, faster digitalization in the company, and making the rail network more resilient to the effects of climate change.
Attributing it to past failures, the government provided an ‘advance payment’
Wissing said that when he took the job in 2020, he found Deutsche Bahn in bad shape, describing the state of the rail network and its maintenance as “barren” in places.
However, he argued that the federal government, which owns 100% of DB’s shares, had started taking steps to turn this around during his tenure.
He cited the establishment of an infrastructure division for DB earlier in the year, the start of a general rail network overhaul and improved financial support from the government budget as examples.
“We entered and gave advance payment, now Bahn also has to deliver,” he said.
msh/WMR (AFP, dpa)
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