The new German Transport Minister was given a first-hand demonstration of Deutsche Bahn’s problems right at the start of his first official train trip. Steffen Bilger was forced to change railcars on an ICE train from Berlin to Hamburg after the air-conditioning system broke down.
The new German Transport Minister, Steffen Bilger, experienced first-hand one of the problems complained about by Deutsche Bahn passengers right at the start of a trip dedicated to the rail system.
On Monday, Bilger was travelling on an ICE train from Berlin to Hamburg when the air-conditioning system in a second-class railcar broke down.
The railcar was evacuated and subsequently closed, and the passengers, including the minister, were forced to find seats in other railcars on the train.
The incident occurred at a time when Germany is experiencing high temperatures.
He had set out to investigate rail transport issues
The irony of the situation is also highlighted by the purpose of the journey.
Bilger was at the start of a two-day trip to northern Germany, during which he was due to look into, amongst other things, safety on trains and cleanliness at stations.
Steffen Bilger became Federal Minister of Transport following a recent cabinet reshuffle led by Chancellor Friedrich Merz. One of the main challenges of his term in office will be to turn around Deutsche Bahn and the German rail infrastructure, which have been plagued for years by punctuality issues, breakdowns and passenger dissatisfaction.
His predecessor, Patrick Schnieder, had stated at the end of June that Deutsche Bahn had made progress in addressing the problems caused by high temperatures.
He said that the operator had mobile teams capable of responding quickly to faults in air-conditioning systems, whilst acknowledging that the problems cannot be completely eliminated when temperatures become extreme.
Bonuses for Deutsche Bahn executives linked to train punctuality
The ICE incident comes just a few days after Bilger announced that he wanted to link Deutsche Bahn executives’ bonuses more directly to the achievement of targets set by the German Government.
One of the main indicators will be punctuality.
The current results are “completely unsatisfactory”, said the minister, given that only around 60 per cent of long-distance trains were on time in the first half of the year.
According to the targets currently in place, the punctuality of long-distance trains should reach 70 per cent by 2029.
Bilger warned, however, that 100 per cent punctuality is not realistic in the foreseeable future and that, in his view, such a level does not exist in other European countries either.
Experts attribute Deutsche Bahn’s problems, amongst other things, to decades of insufficient investment in infrastructure, at a time when rail traffic has continued to grow. The German government is preparing to invest billions of EUR in modernising the network, alongside the restructuring of the operator.
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