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ICE at a train station (symbol picture)
Photo: JACQUES DEMARTHON / AFP
A quarter of all long-distance trains operated by Deutsche Bahn arrived late last year.
The punctuality value for long-distance traffic for 2021 was 75.2 percent, but in the first Corona year of 2020 it was 81.8 percent.
In regional traffic, the average was more than 94 percent.
A train is considered to be on time if it arrives with a maximum of five minutes delay.
The railway referred to "disruptive factors of historical proportions" that would have had a massive impact on punctuality in the past year.
For example, the flood disaster in the summer "destroyed infrastructure in one fell swoop to an extent previously unknown."
In addition, the traffic offer had been adjusted several times in the course of the corona restrictions and there were then often impairments at the "interfaces between old and new timetables".
Green traffic expert: »Warning signal for the traffic turnaround«
The company also referred to the tough collective bargaining dispute with the train drivers' union GDL in the past year.
"Three waves of strikes have repeatedly thrown railway operations out of sync," it said.
Last but not least, construction and modernization work would have had »negative effects in the highly frequented bottlenecks« of the DB network.
The green traffic expert Matthias Gastel spoke of a "warning signal for the traffic turnaround" in view of the punctuality values in long-distance traffic.
Only those who can rely on the offer will change.
Many delays are due to the infrastructure, said Gastel.
"We see this as a mandate to urgently make improvements here."
hej / AFP
