As of: March 10, 2024, 7:01 a.m
By: Florian Neuroth
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ZDF is broadcasting a documentary about alleged trickery at Deutsche Bahn.
The company finds this “unfair” – and counters with a “fact check”.
Berlin – The allegations are serious.
Trickery when booking tickets, germs on dirty pillows and fuel-guzzling diesel locomotives in local transport – the ZDF documentary “Deutsche Bahn: The Insiders” paints a bleak picture of the conditions at Deutsche Bahn (DB).
For almost 45 minutes, former employees of the railway company explain what went wrong there and what was kept secret from customers.
Two days after the show was broadcast for the first time on Tuesday evening (March 5th) at prime time at 8:15 p.m. on ZDF, the railway reported in the middle of the rail strike - and the ZDF documentary in a message on the railway homepage along with a " Fact Check” was sharply criticized.
“Superficial, misleading and unfair” – these are the words used by Deutsche Bahn and DB marketing chief Jürgen Kornmann to describe the program.
Kornmann writes on Linkedin that he normally holds back from openly criticizing the work of editorial teams, "but what flickered across the ZDF screen yesterday unfortunately does not meet any journalistic quality standards."
Neither railway representatives had the opportunity to speak in front of the camera, nor did the program makers get in touch in a timely manner.
“A reaction to the statements in the documentary was just as impossible as an interview,” writes Kornmann and is annoyed by “the slapstick of making the protagonists unrecognizable with face masks.”
In disguise and with distorted voices, former railway employees talk about the secret tricks in the railway company in the ZDF documentary “The Insiders”.
He defends himself against the allegations with a fact check.
© Screenshot ZDF broadcast: Deutsche Bahn: The insider tricks behind the scenes
ZDF documentary about Deutsche Bahn is making waves: “45 minutes of half-truths,” says one interviewee
In fact, the show caused quite a stir.
Users on the Reddit portal are upset, on the social network
He now wishes “he hadn’t contributed an original sound to the documentary”.
“Embarrassing picture level.
45 minutes of half-truths, banalities and false statements.
It’s a shame, ZDF,” he writes on X.
In the meantime, the television station had removed the documentary from its media library.
On Thursday afternoon it found itself in the media library again, as a “corrected version” with a transparency note.
“Elaborately masked,” “four insiders told about Deutsche Bahn’s secret tricks,” is how ZDF describes the program.
In the past, other large companies such as Ikea and McDonald's have been discussed as part of the documentary series.
Former railway employees reveal alleged “tricks” at the railway in a ZDF broadcast
The show then goes primarily in one direction.
“I was a train chief for five years and overcrowded trains are part of the plan,” says a protagonist right at the beginning.
In addition to well-known complaints such as trains being particularly unpunctual in Germany, one supposed secret after another is revealed.
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The ex-employees talk about “bait offers”, microwaved food in the dining car and broken rails or high demands for passenger compensation.
Deutsche Bahn offers these for delays of 60 minutes or more; the consumer advice center recently called for this to be reduced to 30 minutes.
Deutsche Bahn is releasing a “fact check” after the ZDF documentary
The company has responded to seven allegations.
First of all, there is the accusation that the DB is deliberately selling more tickets than there are seats on the train, and also that the Federal Police repeatedly have to clear trains.
“The fact is,” is the headline of the company above every clarification, “we are deliberately waiving the requirement to make reservations so that our passengers can travel flexibly.” The passenger associations also welcomed this.
Of course, it could happen that more passengers board than there are seats available.
“In 2023, however, there was only a partial evacuation of 0.2 percent of trains in long-distance traffic.
Only in very few of these cases did the federal police have to be called in.”
The claim that passengers have “almost no right to anything” as a result of the new EU passenger regulations since June 2023 is also false, according to Deutsche Bahn.
Significantly higher compensation amounts (132.8 million euros) were paid in 2023 than in the previous year (92.7 million euros).
The railway not only compensates in the event of 100 percent fault, as claimed, but also, for example, in the event of “normal storms” or animals on the tracks.
Which ticket rights rail drivers have is set out in the DB passenger rights and depends on various factors.
Bahn: ZDF calculations on greenhouse emissions wrong – accusation of “gross foul” against former colleagues
Also explosive are the allegations that the coffee machines in the on-board restaurant usually didn't work and that the pillows were "always overlooked" during cleaning.
The fact is that all six of the pillowcases were thoroughly cleaned and the coffee machines were 94 percent available last year, counters the railway and writes: “By the way: The accusation by a former employee of his colleagues from before is a gross foul. “
The railway accuses ZDF of a clear calculation error when it comes to emissions.
According to the documentation, around 2.4 percent of all greenhouse emissions in Germany were caused by Deutsche Bahn.
In fact, the number is only 0.6 percent, says the railway.
ZDF summed up the DB Group's global emissions and compared them to the total greenhouse gas emissions in Germany.
“Such an invoice is not correct,” said the railway.
ZDF has to correct errors in the program “Deutsche Bahn: The Insiders”.
ZDF has now corrected the relevant passage.
“An earlier version of the video said that Deutsche Bahn was responsible for 2.4 percent of all greenhouse emissions in Germany.
It is correct: If the company were to emit its global emissions here, this would be 2.4 percent of all CO2 emissions in Germany.
Emissions arising in Germany account for 0.6 percent,” writes the broadcaster in the transparency note.
And the station also had to make adjustments elsewhere.
It was said that “DB’s local transport runs “mainly” on diesel.
It is true that local transport is largely operated electrically, but 3,000 diesel locomotives are still in use,” writes ZDF.
“Both positions have been corrected.”
ZDF contradicts Deutsche Bahn’s allegations: “Opportunity for a detailed statement”
In response to a request from
IPPEN.MEDIA
, ZDF emphasized that it had “given the railway the opportunity to make a detailed statement in advance of the broadcast”.
“The detailed questionnaire was discussed in two telephone calls.
Reference was made to the prominent broadcast slot and to other episodes of the series that had already been broadcast so that colleagues from the DB press office could get an impression,” says the ZDF communications department.
It was also discussed whether there was enough time for the DB to comment.
This was answered in the affirmative, according to the ZDF answer.
“At no time was Deutsche Bahn denied an interview.
Unfortunately, the answers to the questionnaire were very general.
These answers were published on the show.
Only after the broadcast did the DB respond in detail on its own website.”
Bahn is self-critical and wants to deal with “well-founded criticism”.
Despite the excitement, the railway is also self-critical.
We know “that our performance is not what the passengers deserve,” says the company at the end of the “fact check”.
Only recently, railway expert Arno Luik spoke about, among other things, the shortage of staff at the railway and accused the HR director of “blatant failure”.
The problems provide areas for attack, writes Deutsche Bahn.
You can deal with “well-founded criticism of it” – “as long as you fight with an open mind,” emphasizes the company.
But that wasn't the case at ZDF, "and our employees didn't deserve that."
(Florian Neuroth)