Delays and cancellations: Significant problems on ICE routes abroad
Created: 11/27/2022, 10:46 am
By: Eric Sharp
The connection from Frankfurt main station to Brussels is a problem route.
Many trains are late, too many trains do not run at all.
Frankfurt – The Deutsche Bahn and the delays of their trains.
It's a sore subject.
In particular, frequent drivers in the Rhine-Main area are now so used to it that they no longer get upset about it.
The Frankfurt Central Station junction is completely overloaded, both in local and long-distance traffic, as reported by fnp.de.
Not only domestic connections are far too prone to delays.
Deutsche Bahn's offers to neighboring countries often require an extra dose of patience from the passengers.
Deutsche Bahn: Frankfurt-Brussels route only every second train is on time
On the route between Frankfurt and Brussels alone, in July 2022 only every second ICE reliably drove into and out of the train stations at the scheduled time.
According to a Spiegel
report, “operational punctuality” between January 2021 and July 2022 fell
by more than 37 percent.
Too unreliable: The ICE from Frankfurt main station to Brussels.
© Arnulf Hettrich/Imago
At Deutsche Bahn, punctuality has its own definition: “The overall punctuality of a train results from recording the respective relative times along the entire route.
At DB AG, a train is considered punctual if it arrives or departs up to 5:59 minutes after the time specified in the timetable.
However, a train is already included in the statistics as "not on time" if it has exceeded the five-minute limit at a measuring point on the route - regardless of whether it ultimately reaches its destination on time."
From Frankfurt to Brussels: 42 failures at Deutsche Bahn in July alone
However, the problems on the route between Frankfurt main station and Brussels go beyond punctuality.
Because the ICE often had no chance of going according to plan - because it wasn't even on the track.
As the mirror reported from the answer to a question from a member of the Bundestag to the Federal Ministry of Transport, 42 connections failed completely in July, 166 could only use a section due to technical problems.
Frankfurt Central Station: From the beginnings to the turn of the millennium
View photo gallery
In view of the pure travel time, Deutsche Bahn definitely beats the flight connections.
The journey from Frankfurt main station to Brussels via Cologne is scheduled to take three hours.
It still takes an hour by plane, but with waiting times at check-in and before boarding, passengers land in similar time spheres.
But the lack of reliability is a strong argument against traveling with the ICE train, especially for business people and politicians.
The situation is similar on the route between Frankfurt and Amsterdam.
Only 58 percent of the trains ran on time.
The reason: construction sites and technical problems with the trains.
(esa)
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