If you want to know what the word "resilience" means, you have to get on a bright green train next week.
The train drivers want to strike the state company Deutsche Bahn again for two days, a large part of the connections is canceled.
Many passengers discovered that there was an - albeit still small - alternative: the "Flixtrain", the rail counterpart to the Flixbus, which has already competed with the conventional Intercity Express from the motorway and, above all, has ensured that There, too, more and more tickets at affordable prices came on the market.
It was not just the corona crisis that showed that a system is primarily "resilient", i.e. resistant to external disturbances, if it rests on several pillars.
Obtaining protective masks or computer chips from a single manufacturer is just as unwise as placing long-distance rail transport in the hands of a single organization.
Even in a country with several railway companies, it can theoretically happen that the train drivers strike all companies at the same time.
But that is not very likely.
And this applies even more to mishaps and omissions that are related to the company itself.
Unusual alliance between the FDP and the Greens
The fact that companies like Flixtrain are only niche providers is due to a deficit in the rail system: the lack of separation between the rail network, i.e. the infrastructure, and the train operation, i.e. the companies that use the network. Deutsche Bahn itself operates the greater part of regional traffic and almost all long-distance traffic - and is by far the largest customer of its own network company. This gives it a wide range of options for informally slowing down competition, even if the network agency watches over the same formal conditions.
Interestingly, it is precisely the possible future coalition partners FDP and Greens who want to strictly separate the network and operations, while the Union and SPD think more of the well-being of the state-owned company than of competition and climate protection.
Who knows: It is possible that such an eco-liberal alliance could even negotiate the important step after the election with the necessary third party in the league of future coalitionists.
The demand for cheap tickets is great
Of course, there are still a few practical problems to be overcome, but they can be solved.
At first glance, the planned Germany cycle, which is supposed to guarantee connections at many junction stations every hour or half-hour, is difficult to reconcile with a system in which every railway company simply drives when it wants.
It would be conceivable to tender such connections as before in regional traffic, where this system has reduced costs and saved many branch lines. Or the competition simply uses the time window that the clock traffic leaves. The example of Flixtrain shows that there is a great demand for cheap direct connections without the all-round service that the ICE promises (and in practice does not always offer). The reintroduction of night trains was and is only possible thanks to new providers.
More importantly, the necessary line capacities for regular traffic and additional trains will only be available with a truly independent network operator who does not just think about the interests of a single user when expanding the tracks. The question of how to buy single tickets for several railway companies can be solved with booking apps, you just have to want it - which today's state railways are not exactly a shining example of, especially in international transport.
Anyone who defends integrated rail operations likes to cite Switzerland as a role model. But the small mountainous state with its comparatively slow connections and expensive tickets is only suitable to a limited extent. After all, the operational processes work there. In Germany, on the other hand, there is nothing to be said for leaving the organization of the network and operations in the hands of a company that is clearly not successful in organizing.