German state railway company Deutsche Bahn (DB) blames strikes, construction work and storms for poor punctuality in the first half of this year. Only 62.7% of long-distance trains arrived without major delays.
“The massive strikes, the construction work throughout the country and, above all, the extreme weather conditions on an unprecedented scale in the first half of the year have put pressure on the figures,” DB said in Berlin on Thursday.
The figure was six percentage points lower than in the same period last year.
The situation in June was particularly difficult, with flooding, damage to dikes and landslides in several regions at the same time, DB said. Almost half of long-distance trains were delayed, defined as a delay of at least six minutes.
The punctuality rate of trains in June was 52.9%.
The 2024 European Football Championship took place in Germany from 14 June to 14 July. Foreign media reports of broken-down trains and overcrowded platforms caused great embarrassment in a country that once prided itself on accuracy, punctuality and high-quality infrastructure.
A new statistic on passenger punctuality introduced at the beginning of this year hit a low of 55.3% in June.
The figure takes into account how many passengers reach their destination without a delay of 15 minutes or more. It also takes into account cancelled services.
DB said it was abandoning its early-year target of 70% train punctuality, saying the figure was no longer achievable for the year.
