In the first three months of this year, Deutsche Bahn has canceled around 900 long-distance trains without replacing the ICE and IC. Between January and March, on average, about one percent of the trains "on the entire route" failed without replacement, according to a response from the Federal Ministry of Transport on a request from the FDP Group.
That corresponded to approximately 900 of a total of approximately 75,000 journeys, it was said further. Affected were "less than one percent of travelers". In many cases, the train offered an alternative travel connection. At first the "world" had reported about it.
According to the Ministry of Transport, which relies on information provided by Deutsche Bahn, the punctuality of travelers in 2017 was 84.3 percent. Last year, the number dropped to 80.1 percent. The punctuality in relation to the trains also deteriorated within this period: it was specified by Deutsche Bahn for 2017 at 78.5 percent, in 2018 it was only 74.9 percent.
The FDP member Torsten Herbst told the "world", it was "completely unsatisfactory that there is still no progress in the reliability of DB long-haul trains" - especially in the face of a winter without weather extremes. "The victims are once again the train travelers", criticized Herbst, who is also chairman of the transport committee of the Bundestag.
75,000 trips per day
The promises made by the Deutsche Bahn for more customer-friendliness "are once again proving to be a mere announcement poetry," said Herbst. Especially with regard to the technical reliability of the trains and the personnel, the DB itself has the power to finally make improvements. He called for more federal funding for rail to be made conditional on "the DB doing its own homework".
The railway rejected the criticism. The Group uses 24,000 trains a day in long-distance and local traffic, with 75,000 journeys per day. This magnitude alone would put these losses into perspective. The number of painted trains is constant, there is no accumulation of complete failures, it was said from the company.
The number of completely failed train journeys in long-distance traffic was thus around 3500 last year, and thus also with a total share of about one percent. In the past, lack of reserves and deficiencies in maintenance operations in particular led to train cancellations. Both problems had been addressed, it said at the railway. "The availability of vehicles is at a stable high level," said a railway spokesman. Of 280 ICE trains 279 are currently operational.
Punctuality in long-distance and local traffic
As far as the punctuality of long-distance trains is concerned, the whole year 2018 was a year full of annoyances for travelers - only 74.9 percent of the ICE, Intercitys and Eurocitys reached their destinations on time. It looks better in regional traffic: on average, 94.1 percent of the trains were on time last year. That means after railway definition - less than six minutes late.
However: Nationwide, there are significant differences. The least passengers had to wait in Hamburg. There were 97.7 percent of the trains on time. In second place in the state comparison was Berlin with 97.3 percent. Berlin and Hamburg also cut off so well because the S-Bahn is included. It is considered delayed from four or three minutes delay, but relieved by their short distances and many trips the statistics.
The best area was Mecklenburg-Vorpommern with 96.6 percent, the worst was from Bremen. There, only 86 percent of regional trains were on time.