i have no time to listen to the whole video, but i hope its mentioned that: The simple reason for why it takes so long until it's fixed: If it's a simple fix the company who owns the railway needs to fix it, but if it's a complete renovation, then Germany needs pay. So instead of keeping the railways in good conditions, the privat investors let the stuff rot until you can't simply fix it anymore. That way the country needs to pay everything and the Deutsche Bahn pays nearly nothing.
At least the delay of German trains is _consistent_ My train once was late and I wouldn't have cought the following train, but the following train was also late so that it all worked out.
You have to be careful, because there's one important exception to that rule: if you arrive late to the train station by any mode of transportation other than a train, the train you're aiming to connect to will _always_ be on time.
Living in Germany, this was the most surprising to me: Thanks to the rigid passenger refund requirements, DB will almost always have a train wait for the incoming connecting train because it's cheaper to have it run a few minutes late than have a bunch of passengers having to wait an hour or more for the next one. This is being done in an extremely consistent way across national and regional rail services. In Austria, the train will rarely wait for connections, and rather instruct passengers to just take the next train. It's both because the DB IT system is more thorough in knowing the connections of the passengers of a given train, but also because train conductors often just ask the passengers and have a lot to say whether they wanna have a train wait for them. In Austria, in many local trains there isn't even a conductor and even if so, their input has less value to the operation HQ
Yes, train delays are so consistent that I bought a car! Because I am NEVER able to reach my destination in time with DB! And it is a nightmare if - no: WHEN! - you get stuck in Munich or Hamburg because not only your planed but even the last connection of the day to the rural city you wanna go to is gone!
I'll never get over that one scene in Jason Bourne, where the protagonist is in Berlin and has to escape a trainstation. He does this by looking at the timetable and then blindly jumping off a bridge to land on the train that he trusted would be just on time to catch him. That would have been the end of the movie if it took place in 2024, lmao.
Nah, he was at the U-Bahn in Berlin. Those blink when the train is about to arrive - and the U-Bahn is rarely late (even when they are, the time shown on the screen is accurate). The notoriously late trains are the inter-city/regio lines, basically the trains that go between cities.
U-Bahn is rarely late, because it runs on its own rail system separated from all other trains. I think it is even incompatible with regular train rails.
It depends on what you mean. If you're looking at the entire picture, then right: Trains (incl S-bahn) have their own tracks and system, separate from U-bahn. The latter however are (if necessary) transported via the rail network, on their own wheels (the track gauge is identic), then shunted over to the U-bahn network at a spot in the track that is situated next to the other system and has the necessary points.
As a German here: The DB (Deutsche Bahn) isn't very precise with their timing. A delay is officially only counted after 5 minutes. So, in daily life, trains are almost always a few minutes late, but it doesn't show up in the official statistics.
@@icephoenix5466not really. Even the mighty SBB only count from 3 minutes onwards. In North America they sometimes use 15+ minutes or it even depends on the total length of the journey, so it go up to 60+ min. Most countries use 5 or 15 min.
IMHO: 5 min are absolutely fine for long distance travel. If there's a connection every 60 min and let's say it's an 4 h journey (e.g. Berlin-Munich)... It won't matter for 99.9 % of all passengers whether you arrive at 10:00 or 10:04. If you take a flight, you'll add some buffer for longer taxiing or bag handling. If you take you own car, 30+ min buffer for traffic jams? What is important is getting your connection and therefore the heavy 15+ min delays are a problem..
I don't know for sure if they're still doing that, but they also used to subtract the time by which other trains appeared too early (without a 5 minute threshold, of course). So, yeah. Even with all the embellishing in place the statistics are still a nightmare. Just try and imagine how bad it really is. And, of course, the obligatory "Danke, Merkel."
@@InTeCredo Well, we kinda do. From 2009 until 2021 when Volker Wissing (FDP) took over all Federal Ministers for Transportation were from the CDU/CSU (all CSU to be precise). 12 years and they didn't do shit for the railway. So we can be very glad if a Federal Minister for Transportation from the CDU/CSU doesn't revoke all the funding (probably in favor of ICE cars...)
CDU/CSU has a terrible track record for public transportation, they're the reason we're in this shit in the first place. Sidenote - They're finally fixing Leuchtenbergring, that part you always have to brace cause the entire train shakes so violently.. 😂
I'm a green and not very fond of the CDU, however, no matter what the next coalition may look like, they will have no choice but to continue financing those investments. @@vomm
Moved to Cologne about 3 years ago with the ideas of German efficiency, German trains always on time and so on. Moving from a small town in Australia to a city that had busses, the S-bahn, the U-bahn and multiple tram lines its like I was looking at spaceships and i didnt care if a train was delayed 30 minutes, i was just happy I could catch one of these spaceships from one point in the same city to another point in the same city. After 3 years i am no longer this awe struck kid and when a train is delayed minutes I start swearing. A lot of pain in the future but will be worthwhile in the years ahead.
Also Aussie in Köln. and I'd say If anything it makes you appreciate Australia more, because we forget as Aussies how spread our and absolutely massive our cities are, our setups aren't to bad within the big cities themselves, but considering what Germany has for infrastructure between cities and countries, yeah nah it's pretty bad nowadays.
@@Relinquicide You absolutely can not compare Australia with Germany. Australia only has very few very big cities around which the majority of the population in the country is located. So it’s way easier to build a Tram, underground and train network. Germany has in every part of the country a fairly big or decent sized city or metropolitan area which all need to be connected with each other. The train lines are spread like a spiders web throughout the country. It’s way more difficult and costly to maintain such a big and chaotically shaped (due to the location of the big cities) train network.
I’m from Texas and spent August 2023 in Germany visiting about a half dozen cities for a few days each. I was very pleased with the public transportation system. The DB app as well as Apple and Google maps all made my travels very easy.
I don't want to be the arrogant European but you guys have (no/) different standards when it comes to this. Compared to Switzerland or even Italy German trains suck
@@masterchief-vd1xsNo, the trains itself are really nice and much better than the Italian ones. Germanys problem is just that they massively underfunded the railways for decades. Especially in the western part of the country where everything is from the 70s it’s just horrible to drive with the train since nothing is working anymore. If you go to the East of Germany everything is pretty much on time since almost every track got updated from 1990-2010. Berlin and Leipzig central station have the best ratio of population/trains being on time.
9:13 I was just in Stuttgart. The train station hands down is the worst experience I had in Germany. It also takes forever to walk from the underground area to the main station platforms. I hope this comment is out dated one day.
This train station in particular currently gets heavily remodeled, going from above-ground terminal station to subterranean through station.Yes, there are chances it will better one day 😄
well, that doesn't come as a surprise when major construction works take place on site, right? Now imagine how long the walk at Munich Central Station is from the end of one wing station to the end of the other wing station. It's a longer walk than in Stuttgart - without any construction works going on at that part of Munich Central Station. That's under plain normal conditions
It had very short access from the trains to the underground by elevator and an underground tunnel. The whole train stations needed to move 300 meters to make room for the construction site. This results in 500 m you need to walk now. The train station is a temporary structure.
I lived in Munich from 2004-2008, they have been talking about building that second tunnel for a looong time. Glad to see it finally happening, great work B1M
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I just railed around Germany last month. Rode from Vienna to Nuremberg to Stuttgart and Ulm. It went pretty well. The construction in Stuttgart was intense, huge site.
Then you went lucky or you probably haven’t really used a lot of regional train services. I live in Hamburg and I rail around a lot and I can count down the amount of times I arrived on time in the last 10 years on one hand. However it is fair to say that I usually use regional train services and the metronom Eisenbahngesellschaft, which runs the regional services between Hamburg and Bremen as well as Hamburg and Hannover is probably the worst of the lot, they can’t even keep their trains in shape and cancellations are usually the outcome
@ NRW is the state with the highest population density, which means you have more trains and lines which cause more chaos. Trains in southern germany are usually a bit more reliant than that but they’re still not exactly great
German joke: when you miss the train at 10 AM, you can still take the train from 9 AM ... Alright, most of the time it's not that bad. There are delays, lots of them, but most delays aren't in the scale of hours. Germans absolutely love to complain on a high level
At the same time some lines haven't been allowed to operate into Switzerland because they're not reliable enough to meet the standards. However it's bad by German standards, there's much worse out there.
Yes germans love to complain but that is irrelevant here. Germany has factually one of the most often delayed trains in the whole of europe. Every german I know has horrible experiences with Deutsche Bahn - you go on the train and you're filled with anxiety. It's embarassing, especially as the 3rd biggest economy in the world.
I mean, the main problem is that the trains are too popular/that the network is overburdened. So if germans keep complaining a bit more, and less trains have to run, the problem solves itself.😉
Nicely summarized, and very timely, with the Riedbahn corridor reopening in a week from now. However, I have to say this full shutdown and rerouting made a lot of sense. The bus replacement service for regional stations between Mannheim and Frankfurt apparently worked flawlessly, and the long-distance trains, while taking longer, actually ran on time. So my travels usually took 30min to 1h longer - for trips that would be 3-6h total - but I basically wasn't late anymore. Now I'm looking forward to the statistics of trains on this corridor.
Wow, didn't know it's already coming to a close soon, and on time too. Am super impressed, that's basically unheard of from our german construction industry xD
@@Loren1389 Deutsche Bahn track works is ususally quite punctual. Not much dependency on external powers, I think. And "just" renewing tracks is something they are really efficient in.
What many people also forget is that the majority of investments for the German railway network over the last 30 years had to go into the modernization and reconstruction of the East German railway system after reunification. The (formerly) West German state-owned railway company DB, fully took over the East German state-owned railway company…
Actually not took over. The Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) and the Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR) were both dissolved and replaced by the Deutsche Bahn AG (also abbreviated DB)
West German infrastructure was almost as bad as the one in East Germany at that time. At least, the DR didn't put as many secondary lines out of service as the DB (until 1994).
The German Railway system (formerly state owned on both sides of the wall) was intentionally worked to the ground for privatization reasons. Most of the "investments" were put into making the DB AG his own hardest enemy, in the form of a road-spedition. Transportation for goods and people was always a balanced system, one financing the other. But now we see, you can't provide the network just on ticket prices. As a lot of ppl had argued back in the days.
Ironically the shape of Germany makes it hard as there are many choke points , while in France , Paris is essentially the spoke of the wheel where trains branch out in many directions
That is also due to a difference in philosophy. Germany has multiple trains a day, with more stops and a lower average speed. Whereas France has a lower frequency, but with less stops and higher average speed. I personally prefer the flexibility that the German system offers.
@ :Huh?? No. France has the TGV network AND the TER network. The latter stops everywhere and uses historical lines. TGV travels on new dedicated HSR lines (and then can extend on the historical lines to reach provincial destinations directly).
@@lours6993 TER is often times absolutely terrible when compared to German regional rail. It's way less frequent, sometimes has no regular gaps between trains at all and has poor coverage.
I don't think thats because of germany's shape. The reason is of historical nature. France has many centuries of history of beeing governed from Paris. It has a long history of centralisation and anti-federalism. Paris, or Versaille, has been the unchallenged center of France since Louis XIV. Germany has a long history of emphasizing federalism. Thus hindering centralization efforts. Also the capital of west Germany was Bonn, and east Germany was Broke AF.
Honestly, i recently took 4 regional trains to get from Frankfurt Airport to Esslingen, which is 215km away and it all went extremely smooth. I reached all my trains on time, they all arrived within 2 mins of when they were supposed to and in the end i got there a few mins ealier than i expected. To top it all off, i got on a bus which also arrived exactly then when it was schedudled to arrive. I was positively surprised.
I’ve been working in railway management for over 15 years by now, and I always have to laugh when a new government comes in and has some very expensive plan to “save the railways” (mostly including an army of very expensive consultants that produce reports with very few new insights). Providing in a performant rail network is at its most efficient when former governments just wouldn’t be so keen on sabotaging operations; we’ve been doing this for over 100 years, people in the industry know how to do this. It’s not rocket science, just investing in what has to be done…
Consultants and contractors just don't have the same incentives as staffers. Sometimes they do good work (e.g. SNCF in Morocco, al Boraq), other times they blow up the costs (e.g. EDF in the UK, Hinkley Point C for another French example). That said, part of that is poor management of said contractors/consultants.
Contrary to the governments before the current one (although having fallen apart) at least decided to spend this money - before there also were a lot of words but no actions
maybe you can shed some light on this for me, why the hell does munich not just build a ring around the city instead of yet another railway? Like, large parts of a ring would already be completed anyway, it would just be connecting them and adding another line next to the existing one, which is way easier to do since its above ground...
@@pottedrosepetal6906 I'm not involved in the decision making around that project so I don't consider myself to be knowledgeable enough to provide concrete answers.
I was in Germany in August and in Munich for Adele. 1st The trains were always on time and very fast much more efficient than I’ve ever witnessed in the UK. 2nd They were way better at handing huge crowds and keeping things moving. 3rd Trains were more Morden and better maintained than any other train network I’ve experienced. Munich as a whole was amazing, very clean and nice people.
If you went to Adele you probably took the U-Bahn, no? They are operated by the city and not connected to the railway network. They are usually pretty good in Germany along with trams.
The trains that took people to Adele were the U-bahn, always operated by local cities themselves, here the MVG. The issue mentioned here is the Nation wide rail operator DB, with their nation wide network. The S-Bahn system in munich is part of the DB and the run on on their rail infrastructure, which is old and overloaded, so the munich S-Bahn is the issue here, and not the U-bahn. The U-bahn runs on a completely seperated infrastructure detached from the main rail, thus noone usually complains about it as it's super reliable and has rarely any issues.
@@mmd77777 The local rail for getting around within German cities is great! Only 4 cities in the UK have some kind of underground local rail network, compared to over 20 in Germany and only 7 have trams, compared to over 60 in Germany. Birmingham, similar in size to Munich only has one tram line and Leeds doesn't even have that. Germany has cities the size of Brighton or Coventry (300K) with underground/tram hybrid networks and they always use the same tickets as the bus network, even singles are valid on all local and regional bus and rail. That's way better than in most of the UK, where a bus single is only valid on the first bus you get on and doesn't allow you to finish an entire single journey using multiple bus and rail lines.
The Munich U-Bahn is very reliable and punctual. The S-Bahn can’t be that reliable and punctual when you have a very long core route connecting almost all lines and a train every 2 minutes (the most used train route in Europe by traffic density). But when it works properly, it’s also a blessing and a very good means of transport to move from A to B here in the city as well.
At least there is now a broad consensus, even among the next government, that a lot more investment in the railways is needed. The low point was already a few years ago. But it will still take a decade before you see positive effects.
I watched a video where someone explained that the train wouldn't have to be any faster if the experience customers had was more enjoyable, in fact the trains could go slower if people enjoyed being on them, and it would cost far less to make the ride enjoyable than it costs to make it faster.
@@theoriginalJP that depends. The Swiss railways are the slowest in Europe but are universally liked. But they only transport as many people as the Berlin s-Bahn and only short distances. The DB competes not only with cars but also with aircraft. That‘s why it needed to be fast. But the speed is not the problem. The capacity is the problem. The demand has grown a lot, but capacity has remained stagnant. And the network has a lot of choke points. Especially in central western Germany. They need to be removed. But it takes time and less fraud projects but many small improvements.
@ yes. That’s the B1M number. The German government is saying something more in the 200bn to 300bn range. They doubled annual investments but it would take too long. That’s why there will likely be a further increase or a separate budget. Also I would favour increasing ticket prices as lower ticket prices of the last few years have exacerbated the problem - predictably.
A person making $10/hour, 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, would have to work for over three million years to make that much money. You should be careful dismissing huge expenditures.
@@dansands8140 $10/hour is below the minimum wage in Germany and way below the wage of skilled workers. You need thousands of them to pull it off. So yeah, $60bn to overhaul the entire country's railway infrastructure is not that much, especially considering all the bureaucratic bs you have to go through in Germany.
One of the main issues that are plagueing DB is actually the "rail reform" from about thirty years ago. It was essentially a privatization. The DB is now not a state operator but a public company (although the state holds all its shares). This essentially means that DB is now legally required to aim for the highest profit, not for the best service. Stuttgart 21 is a good example for this: Similar to train station projects in the US, the main objective of moving the train station below ground is creating high value real estate above. Also, the way the infrastructure has been split off essentially means that while the maintenance of existing lines has to be funded by the DB, new construction is funded by government grants, which means that DB is financially incentivized to let rail lines break down and close them and have the government build shiny and expensive high speed rail lines that will turn them a profit. At least this point has been somewhat mitigated by the creation of the reconstruction fund by the outgoing government, but soon again the transport ministry will most probably revert from being held by a somewhat competent Auto lobbyist to a totally incompetent Auto lobbyist. Note that even the increase government money isn't enough to arrive at the "Deutschlandtakt", and integrated regular schedule for the entire country. Also, much of the regional train service is run by private companies that extract their own profit out of the government contracts they receive for operation, and as these local rail companies are often owned by foreign state rail companies like trenitalia, ÖBB etc., essentially German state companies pay for the rail systems in other countries.
you omit that it wasn't only the DB that was privatised back then. Telekom and the German post were also privatised at the same time, and both haven't had the same extreme issues as DB. So clearly you can't just put the blame at privatisation.
@@onurbschrednei4569 German internet is notoriously slow and unreliable. A common long distance train journey between two big cities in austria goes through germany and you *always* lose connection as soon as you enter germany, and it only comes back once you reenter austria
@@XKING91This shows that you really have absolutely no idea about the issue. Large parts of the rail tracks where cut off to increase profits through depreciation
A country that you wouldn’t expect to have a decent railway system is Italy… the process of replacing old trains is almost finished… delays are becoming the exception and high speed service is one of the best made in the world. Also the application of Trenitalia is really well made and the various services offered by Trenitalia are very nice.
@@baab4229 I don't see how Rome having mediocre public transport relates to the national railway system of Italy. Did you travel around rome via regional trains or what?
More videos about Germany pls maybe even Berlin and its future Modenisied ring and lineupdating great video I’m From Germany myself and love how accurate this video has been keep it up
As a Berliner and frequent customer of the DB - this isn't just some abstract thing, this is VERY noticeable in everyday life and the difference compared to ten or twenty years ago is MASSIVE. Also it affects the BVG, Berlins local transportation company, just as much now. Everything is extremely overcrowded and nothings ever on time anymore.
I visited both Stuttgart and Munich this past summer and wow, the amount of construction was insane, but what was crazier was how there were almost 0 delays. My experience may be atypical, so I can only hope this megaproject is completed for Germany soon. Danke and greetings from America!
Great video very informative but you did not mention the proposed major change at Franfurt hauptbahnhof. Like Stuttgart DB are currently performing feasabilty studies on how best to allow north - south ICE trains to pass striaght through the staion (underground of course) in a similiar manner to that nearing completion in Stuttgart. A certain amount of funds have already been allocated and it seems a preferred route is already being discussed after 4 or 5 variations were considered.
@@gelber_kaktus they aren't because while the station only has four tracks, the upper terminus station stays intact. As part of a separate project, it will even gain another platform (more is not possible without removing major roads or tearing down buildings). The underground station can handle 10-15 high speed trains per hour and direction, even with a four-minute stop time, allowing more traffic on the terminus station. The target schedule sees 8,5 HS trains per hour on the underground station, 2 trains/hour on top because they terminate and a 2-horuly service still changing directions.
At least Germany are going big - contrasts with the UK and its HS2 and northern powerhouse plans that have been stopped, restarted, scaled back, and still in much doubt.
@@york2600 In its current state yes. a fast connection between London and Birmingham is fine and will provide a nice capacity boost but HS2 in full would literally be as if we built 4 brand new mainlines all at once, which is as huge as you imagine.
It does seem that the UK might end up in the same place if it can't make the same investment now. Munich is building a second cross city tunnel when cities like Birmingham and Manchester don't even have one (Manchester in particular needs something to reduce congestion on the Castlefield corridor which is one of the busiest sections of railway in the country).
I live near Stuttgart and I see forward to enjoy the new train station, the new railways and easier access to the main station itself. Digitalisation and new train stations all across will make it more efficient and less delays. All will be good some day, I want to believe!
Visited Germany for the first time in September. Was excited to try out the DB and had 4 trips planned between cities. 2 cancelled trains (which resulted in me losing my reserved seats so I had to stand for 4hrs in full trains) and all 4 trips arrived over 45 mins late. Learned very quickly that next time I visit, I’ll just fly between cities.
4 trips with 45+ minutes of delay? That's about the same number of delays I had in riding trains across Germany in more than a decade "I’ll just fly between cities." and then? You'll arrive at an airport far outside the city and might still take a 1 hour ride on the train to get into the city. Taking the train all the way is definetly faster than that
Well, you did get yourself the proper German experience. You really felt what it's like to live here. No amount of sightseeing or city trips could have provided you those insights. So there's that.
On a positive note: The Riedbahn renovations seem to have been completed on time. I live in one of the smaller towns on the line and starting tomorrow, the trains start rolling again. :)
Finally, I've traveled so often with the Deutsche Bahn and about 80% of the time I had some delay or even cancellations making the trip hours longer. Every time I'm scared again getting into a DB train not knowing if I'm gonna make it home this time 😅😅
"Bahnsinn Riedbahn" sums up many of the issues quite nicely. What's doubly interesting is that it's made by Deutsche Bahn. Yes, they are actually critically looking at their shortcomings, while also demonstrating the immense challenges they face.
I interrailed last July and stayed in Munich for a couple of days and loved it! Arrived from Prague in Ostbahnof and departed to Paris in Hauptbahnof, neither of them had any delays :)
Wow, watching your videos for some years now and today my hometown was visible in the section about the "Riedbahn". Next week the trains are supposed to travel again on these tracks. And the whole project was within it's projected timespan. That's quite unusual for such big projects in Germany - not all projects must become a BER 😅 Thank you for all your hard work for these videos!
The UK and Germany both suffer similar issues... Conservative governments have enjoyed growth and low interest rates without spending enough in infrastructure and public services.
@@maximusg88 The UK and Germany are facing similar problems.... Your conservative governments they are not conservatives, they are far left 🤮Greetings from Poland
I was out there in the summer for the football, couldn’t believe how many trains were delayed or cancelled having grown up being told about German efficiency and how good European public transport is, at least it’s still a lot cheaper than British trains!
It quite possibly still was that way back when you did your growing up. But that's what 16 consecutive years of conservative administration do to a country.
@@lonestarr1490As if only conservative governments are incompetent in that regard, they all have been in the last 30 years. The social democrats have been part of government in Germany for a total of 22 years since 1998.
Japan:we have the fastest and most on time trains Germany:my trains and service are decent but needs improvement Hungary:you guys have a working train infrastructure?
The system is extremely well designed but became a victim of its own success. I thought this video was going to talk about Riedbahn, Karlsruhe Basel and Hanau Fulda capacity improvements but instead Riedbahn was only mentioned towards the end and mainly focused on Munich and Stuttgart 21, both of which have less impact on the entire DB network. Missed opportunity.
The 2nd trunk line is heavily disputed among local traffic and railway engineers. The main point of critics is that they could have upgraded the northern and southern ring for far less money. Benefits would have been, that the resilience of the local network would have been improved more than with a second trunk line while also improving tangential connections. Additionally, big corporations like BMW in the north would have gotten a direct connection to regional PT. In its current form this upgrade feels like last millennium policy
BMW in the north is served by 2 subway lines, has more than a dozen public bus stops, and then there's even BMW internal bus services between the different parts of the plants as well
Exakt, eine Ringbahn wäre günstiger und würde den Immobilienmarkt nicht noch mehr anheizen. München ist bereits teuerste Stadt Deutschlands. Eine Ringbahn verteilt alles besser
I visit my family in Germany all the time and I can say at least from their perspective they don't like the disruption or cost but if it means fixing the network and making it efficient to them its worthwhile.
My main concern is how to survive all of these financial and political crisis, especially in light of the US political power scuffle. The government has really called things more difficult for its citizens, and we can't sit back and bear all the consequences of the bad governance.
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Glad to see some overdue investment in the train system. As a visitor I just assumed German trains would be like clockwork, my train from Wetzlar to Frankfurt today took 93 minutes for the 52 kilometres!
Don‘t underestimate the Germans. I am optimistic that we’ll have a high performing German rail network once again within the next 5-10 years. Deutsche Bahn already does a lot of things very well and is quickly sorting out the sources of their biggest problems. Our rail network is visibly moving in the right direction and the pace is increasing. Of course not everything is rainbows and sunshine but I refuse to be pessimistic about this.
I hope you are right, but I doubt it. As long as we do not have a high speed network separated from other trains in and around the big German cities we'll have problems. And that's not an easy task because normaly there's no space for extra tracks...
Thing is, DB *used* to be good. You speak to millennial and older Germans and they'll say the service in the 00's was much better, not perfect but playing more into the German stereotype. A decade of underinvestment has caused service to decline.
Many Germans right now are in a state of toxic pessimism and defeatism which is a real danger to making progress. Many people act as if the pitiful state of DB is due to a vague boogeyman like 'bureaucracy' or Germans not being as orhanized anymore as they used to be, and don't want imptlrovement. The truth is that much of this is the result of ideological choices to neglect public transport and be totally beholden to the car lobby by the Union. Change can happen and we need to believe things can get better.
Rerouting at Riedbahn was a decision that really payed off. Similar renovation projects were done while still having traffic through the route, and it took years to finish, now Riedbahn had to be rerouted for a couple of months, but is now finished. Maybe for some of the other projects it would be smart to try and finish some small part of it instead of embarking on huge megaprojects all at the same time.
I used to live in Schoneweide (in Berlin), and the old train station building there (I believe intended to be refurbished) had been closed for years, and it even took them years to refurbish two short platforms. Another station, I cannot remember the name of it right now (near Ostkreuz) has been filled with scaffolding for years, and shows no signs of being removed soon? I don't know why, but construction work progresses at a painfully glacial pace, and I have no idea why. I'm living in Warsaw, Poland again now, and everything gets done quickly. There are no projects that stand for multiple years without seemingly progressing at all, despite seeing construction workers being present there.
True. I live in western Germany and I've experienced basic construction sites sitting open for months on end with nobody in sight doing anything. Simple roadworks take years and most of that time you don't see anyone working! What's wrong with our construction industry?
The station near Ostkreuz you refer to is Ostbahnhof - and the scaffolding is nearly completely removed now. The station actually looks pretty decent now. I think the construction industry in Germany is so slow because of extremely complex regulations and high labour costs. Every stakeholder from environmentalists, historians, government agencies, ... needs to be included and have a say in public building projects while coping with 1000s of regulations for fire protection, building material, sustainability, anti corruption, ... It's just a mess.
It is very true with the S-Bahn expansion between Bamberg and Nuremberg. There is one part between Eltersdorf station and Regnitz river that hasn't been expanded from two to four tracks for almost ten years. Deutsche Bahn finally completed the four-track route from Fürth central station to Regnitz river bridge only few years ago and the Eltersdorf station (from two to four tracks) only earlier this year.
@@nichtJanMarsalek And those irritating Wutbürger (angry citizens) who keep finding ways to block the constructions. In Nuremberg, the U3 western expansion was put on hold for a while due to one citizen filing the lawsuit because of noise abatement programme was "insufficient" enough.
I didn't skip your sponsorship sequence because it's very appropriate and well integrated with the rest of your video, and frankly very interesting. I do think however that you should make it clear when a sponsorship sequence begins. You could for example show a QR code when the sponsorship sequence begins.
What they should also focus on removing are the endless rows of bureaucrats slowing the building process through endless paper processes. The money that is wasted on the bureaucracy part could be invested into better build quality (materials, labor, features).
SJ Euronight is a sleeper train service running from Stockholm to Berlin. It's honestly a miracle if it arrives on time in Stockholm. And not only that, SJ suggests to have a 2 hour minimum spare time for connections. On regular SJ trains that's more like 15 mins. So it's not a small delay either, that regularly occur.
Been working in railway management for over 15 years by now. It’s not rocket science, just investing in what has to be done… but then there’s politicians…
@@TheB1MIt's horrible isn't? So basic and minimalistic in a "modernist" style. The walls are all bare and the ceilings too. Ain't no Michelangelo to be found on those ones. And yet they spent a billion on what? An altar that looks like some tub out of a modernist bathroom
Honestly, a project the size and complexity like Stuttgart 21 costing 11bn isn't something crazy high. Expecting that it only costs 4bn was just naive. Just look at the "Durchmesserlinie" in Zurich. It is ONE tunnel. ONE bridge. And only four new platforms at Zurich HB. And it already cost 1.5bn. Stuttgart is at least 10x larger and at much more complex. Good infrastructure is just expensive. But people don't realize that bad/easy infrastructure like Autobahn is as expensive. It is just build in smaller increments, for much less capacity.
Stupid plans are expensive. Instead of letting high speed trains stop at the Stuttgart airport and connect the city (who wants to visit this city?) from there local „politicians“ forced both government and DB into this stupid nightmare if Stuttgart 21. We had the same with each and ever new high speed line in German. Frankfurt-Cologne got two additional stations just 30km apart only to please local politics and convert a high speed connection into a joke on track. This is like forcing direct flights from Hamburg to Munich to have two stops Cologne and Düsseldorf. Last nail into the coffin of high speed connections: They have to share the tracks with all kind of slower passenger and non passenger trains. This country wasted over decades billions of Euro into more concrete for roads and highways. Some countries are driven by good ideas, this country is only able to let fat people drive cars without any sense 24 hours a day.
Die Generalsanierungen sind wichtig und richtig, aber es braucht auch Neubaustrecke um die Kapazitäten, die Flexibilität, die Zuverlässigkeit und die Geschwindigkeit zu erhöhen!
The thing that has me worried most with the planned overhaul of the mainline corridors is that, once finished, the political will to keep investing in the railway network will be gone. This great refurbishment of the railways has to be seen as a first step, not as the solution to germanys rail transport issues. The trains and tracks are already completely packed and some corridors are running beyond capacity 24/7 because the demand is so incredibly high to get people and freight on the tracks. Refurbishing the existing network will not greatly increase capacity, but merely stabilise it for the future. I really hope that once the major refurbishment scheme is done the german gouvernment will keep investing into the rail infrastructure i.e. build, upgrade and even revive derelict infrastructure to keep up with the demand.
One of the most significant problems DB is faced with, is the combined use of track throats by regional and high speed trains to and from main hubs. Have seen quite a few of these ‘works in progress’ updates, but somehow this particular problem still seems to be under the influence of serious back tracking. Also missed it in this one.
Well done Germany for recognising the problem and sinking a big investment into it. We all like to laugh at DB, but to be honest it's not *that* bad (speaking as a Brit I cringe at our lamentable network). In my experience it's slow speed compared to France and there's lots of delays, but it's a functioning high-volume system overall. There's actually a pretty good foundation to build on.
As a Brit, please try to memorise how BR was in the early 1980s. Well, as a German who experienced BR in the 1980s, I can say: That is DB in the 2020s! 😭😱 (I have no idea how BR is today, to be honest)
@@BricksOnAnIsland I remember the tail end of BR in the '90s. It was terrible, and then it got worse with privatisation, until eventually the rails started falling apart, there were several crashes and the whole lot had to be speed-limited. After that there started to be more investment. My experience of DB is mainly crossing between France and Austria, so a bit limited. DB trains and customer service are worse than SNCF or ÖBB, plus you can feel the foreign trains slow right down when you cross the border, but they do still go. I've never actually been completely stuffed by a cancelled or broken down train crossing Germany (while I was several times in the UK in the old days), so in my experience DB is bad, but could be a lot worse, and you didn't let it get as bad as we did before deciding to do something about it. Even the stations that everyone loves to hate, like Stuttgart, are busy and badly laid out, rather than completely broken and half abandoned as they were at our worst point.
@@bimblinghill The good thing about DB: almost no crashes at all. But within the last two years me, my wife and some of our holiday guests experienced more delays and cancelled trains than ever before. Traveling from southern Germany via Frankfurt and Collogne to the north sea was sometimes like a lottery, especially in the summer of 2023. It is frustrating when your holiday guests call you from their departure station near Stuttgart in the morning tellling you that it is already clear before they even enter the first train that they will miss the last ferry to our Island (North Sea). And they had planed with a time buffer of more than 3 hours! Two months ago (september 2024) my wife's train from Frankfurt was cancelled. She decided to at take a train to Collogne and stay there over night to ensure she reaches at least next days ferry home. In March her train to Hamburg terminated in Bremen.At least DB payed for her Taxi (!) to Hamburg Airport so she could catch her flight. And so on...
Taking the Stammstrecke to and from work every day I want to highlight how well it is coping with the much larger than anticipated usage, and how central it is to getting around in Munich. Nevertheless the new line will definately supercharge traffic in and around the city - I am really looking forward to it. It is also great to see the progress they are making on the other projects. Riedbahn went quite well but there is quite some confidence of the public to win back with large construction projects in Germany. With these (hopefully) trust in the rail system in general will follow.
You hinted at the main problem with the Deutsche Bahn infrastructure, that is, there are no dedicated high speed lines. Freight, commuter and ICE all travel on the same network, meaning the inevitable problems with any part of it cascade to the other constituent parts. It is the overtaking lanes that you mention at 11:30 that the system desperately needs
There definetly ARE dedicated HSR corridors, like from Nuremberg to Ingolstadt, Leipzig to Erfurt and beyond, Frankfurt to Cologne, Stuttgart to Ulm etc. These HSR corridors are, with minor exceptions, used by high-speed passenger trains only, with freight trains running on slower rail lines in the area.
@@michawisniewski4654 The system should have been set up that way right from the start. Like Japan did with their Shinkansen, which was the very first HSR in the world and remains to be the very best to this day. But they thought they could achieve the same thing cheaper by just using the tracks that were already there. A historic blunder that will forever haunt the German highspeed rail.
@@lonestarr1490 A system like in Japan would not work for Germany. In Japan, most of the population is located along a dense corridor along the coasts, meaning only a few high-speed lines are needed to server a large amount of the population. In Germany, the population is more spread out into many medium-sized cities. A completely dedicated high-speed network would never be able to reach an extent where enough of these mid-sized towns would be able to be served. Japan has 12 cities with >1mil. population, Germany has only 4. And the separate network in Japan wasn't born out of choice but out of necessity, as the conventional network uses narrow-gauge railways, on which speeds of over 120 km/h are impossible. In comparison, in Germany even regional services run at 160 km/h a lot of the time and some conventional routes allow for speeds of up to 200 km/h. Germany needs more dedicated high-speed lines, yes. These lines need to be built along the main corridors of high-speed travel to allow high-speed trains to run separately from other services to circumvent these highly congested lines. But a completely separate network makes no sense at all and would result in longer travel times and worse connections for many people, as a completely dedicated high-speed network would never be able to serve as many people as the current ICE network does. Just google for a map of Germany's ICE network and a map of Japan's Shinkansen network. Their extent isn't comparable in the slightest.
I always think its funny how in the US the rail enthusiasts always complain about the freight companys owning the tracks and such the passenger trains must play by the rules of the freight companys, while in Germany people complain about the opposit (e.g. that we are unsuccessful in shifting more freight from the Autobahn to the railways because passenger rail always has priority)
I think it's always important to think of the contractor situation. Now that the DB has built a lot of things, it gave infrastructure building companies an opportunity to specialise in rail building. That helps with getting things done on time and with a higher quality
It's well worth comparing Crossrail/Elizabeth Line in London with Stuttgart 21: Both projects were conceptualised in the 90s and required a lot of tunnel boring, construction began for both around 2010. In London, they estimated 16£ bln. In the end, they paid a little over 19bln, 4 years delayed. S21, however, was estimated to cost 2.5€ bln, a riddiculously little number for a project with such a scale. A very naive, actually very stupid perspective, which unfortunately is very common within Germany. Delay will be 7 years, final costs somewhere around 12€ bln.
I can't help but blame the concept here of how governments must look for and select contractors for their work. They have to make a public announcement and then take the cheapest option that fulfills their requirements and there are some requirements on showing that the contractor actually has the capacity to build at this scale, but the cost thing is a major factor. Of course this is intended to keep people from handing jobs to a friend's company who will charge inflated prices and that does make sense. However, it also ends up with contractors sending in proposals that lowball prices and time estimates wherever they can get away with it. So the delivery time and budget has to be checked by the government - who at this point need an enormous amount of in-house experience with projects like this to make a feasibility-check. Alternatively they can get consultants to do this for them with whom they run into the same issue - they have to go for cheap options and hope their selection criteria and checks work. I don't think dropping all these requirements would make it all magically better. We need policies and processes to prevent nepotism when handing out billion-euro-project contracts. But the way we are handling this right now is just not doing us a lot of favors.
I recently lived in Osnabrück for a few years and had to take the A30 highway to work, which is part of the direct road from Amsterdam to Warsaw. You could always tell when there's been a container ship with goods for Poland unloaded in Amsterdam, as the eastbound side would be choked with Polish and Dutch trucks. There really needs to be more cargo train capacity on that route as well.
They even stripped down the system, now lacking redundancy and capacity. e.g. they shut down multiple sites in and around Berlin in the past 30 years, and now are lacking capacity to park trains, so they need so circle around the city or park hours outside of Berlin.
I moved to Germany in 2020….it really is terrible! Thanks to the mess during the Euros that really helped kick DB up the butt! Bring on the improvements 🎉
Talking about German Trains.... I was in Berlin from 3-7 Dec. Right at the beginning from the DB train from Copenhagen to Hamburg till the train I left Germany, Berlin to Amsterdam, including all S-Bahn trains while I was in Berlin, all of them were delayed, from 5 mins to hours, a 45mins for a S-Bahn delay was really crazy. The only train service which could be more punctual is the U-Bahn, maybe it's just my luck.😂
So the munich project started 7 years ago and is still 11+ years away from completion, just like when it started. There was an alternative idea to use a southern route on existing tracks which would have been a lot cheaper and quicker - and encouraged more spread out/balanced development by providing more city area with awesome service.
While stationed in Germany in 1977, I took a train from Frankfurt to Kaiserslautern. The interior was spotless, the ride was smooth and quiet, and on time. Apparently, not so much these days...
the interior of most long distance trains is actually quite nice and if everything works as planned, it's comfortable journey. However, that interior doesn't help the passengers stranded at some train station, because the train didn't arrive our they missed their connection.
3:10 - "Back in 1972...Munich unveiled S-Bahn" - Funnily, the S-Bahn line to the Olympic Park have been closed and overgrown for decades now xD You can see it on the map to the left from Olympiapark. While DB is at it's lowest point, it's still way ahead of many many other countries I travel via train on, and now it's getting a well needed refresh? I'm all in, these delays are generally of little problem, annoying yes, but can be fairly easily planned around.
The Riedbahn does seem to be quite the success story. As far as I know it is on time and within budget. And this the reason Deutsche Bahn and the German government elected to renovate the remaining key corridors the same. Let's hope the Riedbahn won't be the sole success story in their undertaking.
Whenever I travel by train in Germany, mostly long journeys, I always put in at least 30 minutes for changing trains. It is too risky to go below 30 minutes, which is also kind of risky in itself, but mostly it works.
Yeah, and if you travel in the evening and have to change trains along your route, it is wise to never plan for the last connecting train, but at least one earlier. You're always allowed to use another train to get to your destination if you miss a connection, but if there isn't one, you're stuck. You can get compensation for even say a hotel stay over night or alternative mode of transport, but its obviously a hassle to do that.
I've been living in Berlin for the past two years. The trains do get late every once in a while, but for the most part they run well on time. Just sharing my experience.
As a railway engineer for a national company in eastern Europe, I find these kind of work incredible. I wish my country could invest at least 10% of what Germany is investing...
The DB is also an extremely weird corporation. It is somewhat of a regular for-profit LLC, but its sole owner is the German government. It completely fails at its operations, so it has to be heavily funded by the state to operate in any way. This leaves with a heavily over funded bureaucratic behemoth, which is totally incapable of performing even their basic duties. There are other train operators in Germany, many of them operating slower trains over shorter distances. They too suffer from the DB being chronically incompetent at doing maintenance for the railways. Continuing to let them operate like this is just negligent, the tax money they eat up, together with the prices they demand and the services they offer is totally unjustifiable. No company this badly run deserves to exist.
The DB shouldn't be a company. Public services shouldn't be operated on a for-profit mentality. The entire idea that market liberalisation is a foolproof way to vitalise the system is wrong. Prioritising profits over public service is the exact reason that DB decided to neglect its rail network, abandon many branch lines, close unprofitable services, let stations rot and decay - and heavily invest into road logistics (Schenker) and other markets instead. The past 30 years of DB mismanagement are entirely on the government(s) of those years, which could've changed laws, swapped managers, overhauled funding schemes etc. The DB management did exactly what they were hired to do: squeeze the whole thing until it breaks.
I like that you shed light on this kind of subject. Most of the german population have no idea what is happening in the next couple of years and i think the comprehensive overhaul of this train system will be a game changer fo everyday life. It will probably get worse in the next couple of years before it will get better but i think thats a major achievement in the grand scheme of things.
Yes it has become more and more embarassing during the last 30 years. They removed lines, tracks and let the rest of the money flow in their own pockets. That's what you get if you combine a kind of state owned Deutsche Bahn with the "free" market ... They see and get money from both sides without improving the transport system. All this while increasing the ticket prices on a yearly basis of course ;).
Been working in railway management for over 15 years now, and I can honestly say that if the amount of cash that’s been spent on consultants just would’ve been used to manage daily operations, we wouldn’t be in such a dire situation now. It’s really frustrating for people in the industry to see how politicians mismanage the railways. You’re just not allowed to work efficiently.
The Riedbahn rebuild was a huge projekt which has been completed punctually and in time for the timetable change on 15. December. Our railways are in a shocking state and very overdue for maintenance. In June 2022, a train fell off the tracks at Burgrain, killing five passengers.
@@13Luk6iul DB has more than enough resources to accomplish that. They are just chronically incompetent, so the money vanishes into anything except improved rail service.
@@jonassattler4489 may be. Insteqd of paying bonuses to management, they should use that money to the benefit of the network. but whatever the reason. DB needs to invest in its outdated infrastructure. Also germany has one of the worst high speed networks in western europe. Luckily our last governemnt has made investments possible, as opposed to the previous ones.
@@jonassattler4489 well I can't really comment on how efficient the DB is run overall, but at least the capacity issues of the german rail network is nothing the DB can be held responsible for. Even if they wanted to extend existing lines or build new connections, they can't. It is by law the responsibility of the government to plan, approve and fund those. And this has not been done nearly as needed - and the DB and other train operators have been screeming about it for years. It is true though that it is the job of the former DB Netz AG (now InfraGO) to properly maintain the existing infrastructure. That indeed hasn't been done as much as needed either.
I live near Stuttgart. I regularly visit friends and family in Nuremberg. The line between the two cities is one of the oldest in Germany, and thus also one of the worst. The main stations of Nuremberg and Stuttgart alone are both torturous enough, but my trip usually takes about six hours if all goes well (which it often doesn't). I really do hope that DB can get their act together, but I highly doubt it.
3:02 There is an old saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Unfortunately though, most governments around the world expand this to "If it ain't broke, don't maintain it." This is why much of the world infrastructure rots until billions need to be spent in upgrades. It is a major problem of the modern electoral cycle.
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yikes, those are some ugly buildings.
@IE 💀
@TheB1M I loved the update on Stuttgart 21- maybe you could do a recap video once or twice a year with updates on previously featured projects.
i have no time to listen to the whole video, but i hope its mentioned that:
The simple reason for why it takes so long until it's fixed:
If it's a simple fix the company who owns the railway needs to fix it, but if it's a complete renovation, then Germany needs pay. So instead of keeping the railways in good conditions, the privat investors let the stuff rot until you can't simply fix it anymore. That way the country needs to pay everything and the Deutsche Bahn pays nearly nothing.
At least the delay of German trains is _consistent_
My train once was late and I wouldn't have cought the following train, but the following train was also late so that it all worked out.
You have to be careful, because there's one important exception to that rule: if you arrive late to the train station by any mode of transportation other than a train, the train you're aiming to connect to will _always_ be on time.
Living in Germany, this was the most surprising to me: Thanks to the rigid passenger refund requirements, DB will almost always have a train wait for the incoming connecting train because it's cheaper to have it run a few minutes late than have a bunch of passengers having to wait an hour or more for the next one. This is being done in an extremely consistent way across national and regional rail services. In Austria, the train will rarely wait for connections, and rather instruct passengers to just take the next train. It's both because the DB IT system is more thorough in knowing the connections of the passengers of a given train, but also because train conductors often just ask the passengers and have a lot to say whether they wanna have a train wait for them. In Austria, in many local trains there isn't even a conductor and even if so, their input has less value to the operation HQ
Yes, train delays are so consistent that I bought a car! Because I am NEVER able to reach my destination in time with DB! And it is a nightmare if - no: WHEN! - you get stuck in Munich or Hamburg because not only your planed but even the last connection of the day to the rural city you wanna go to is gone!
@@lonestarr1490 Heisenberg's train.
It's not consistent at all. If you're late for the train, the train will most likely be on time -.-
I'll never get over that one scene in Jason Bourne, where the protagonist is in Berlin and has to escape a trainstation. He does this by looking at the timetable and then blindly jumping off a bridge to land on the train that he trusted would be just on time to catch him. That would have been the end of the movie if it took place in 2024, lmao.
he probably would have made into something that was supposed to depart 3h ago from a different gleis
Imao
Nah, he was at the U-Bahn in Berlin. Those blink when the train is about to arrive - and the U-Bahn is rarely late (even when they are, the time shown on the screen is accurate). The notoriously late trains are the inter-city/regio lines, basically the trains that go between cities.
U-Bahn is rarely late, because it runs on its own rail system separated from all other trains. I think it is even incompatible with regular train rails.
It depends on what you mean. If you're looking at the entire picture, then right: Trains (incl S-bahn) have their own tracks and system, separate from U-bahn. The latter however are (if necessary) transported via the rail network, on their own wheels (the track gauge is identic), then shunted over to the U-bahn network at a spot in the track that is situated next to the other system and has the necessary points.
As a German here: The DB (Deutsche Bahn) isn't very precise with their timing. A delay is officially only counted after 5 minutes. So, in daily life, trains are almost always a few minutes late, but it doesn't show up in the official statistics.
in other countries its counted after one or two the worst besides germany i know is three minutes this is already higher than most.
@@icephoenix5466not really. Even the mighty SBB only count from 3 minutes onwards. In North America they sometimes use 15+ minutes or it even depends on the total length of the journey, so it go up to 60+ min. Most countries use 5 or 15 min.
IMHO: 5 min are absolutely fine for long distance travel. If there's a connection every 60 min and let's say it's an 4 h journey (e.g. Berlin-Munich)... It won't matter for 99.9 % of all passengers whether you arrive at 10:00 or 10:04.
If you take a flight, you'll add some buffer for longer taxiing or bag handling. If you take you own car, 30+ min buffer for traffic jams? What is important is getting your connection and therefore the heavy 15+ min delays are a problem..
Cancelled trains are also not counting. So if a train is delayed too much they cancel it. Do it doesn’t show up 😅
I don't know for sure if they're still doing that, but they also used to subtract the time by which other trains appeared too early (without a 5 minute threshold, of course).
So, yeah. Even with all the embellishing in place the statistics are still a nightmare. Just try and imagine how bad it really is.
And, of course, the obligatory "Danke, Merkel."
Living in Munich, I very much hope that future governments continue to invest into the Bahn infrastructure. There is so much to gain from this
Hope? With the CDU in power next year?
@@vomm You never know...
@@InTeCredo Well, we kinda do. From 2009 until 2021 when Volker Wissing (FDP) took over all Federal Ministers for Transportation were from the CDU/CSU (all CSU to be precise). 12 years and they didn't do shit for the railway. So we can be very glad if a Federal Minister for Transportation from the CDU/CSU doesn't revoke all the funding (probably in favor of ICE cars...)
CDU/CSU has a terrible track record for public transportation, they're the reason we're in this shit in the first place.
Sidenote - They're finally fixing Leuchtenbergring, that part you always have to brace cause the entire train shakes so violently.. 😂
I'm a green and not very fond of the CDU, however, no matter what the next coalition may look like, they will have no choice but to continue financing those investments. @@vomm
Moved to Cologne about 3 years ago with the ideas of German efficiency, German trains always on time and so on. Moving from a small town in Australia to a city that had busses, the S-bahn, the U-bahn and multiple tram lines its like I was looking at spaceships and i didnt care if a train was delayed 30 minutes, i was just happy I could catch one of these spaceships from one point in the same city to another point in the same city. After 3 years i am no longer this awe struck kid and when a train is delayed minutes I start swearing. A lot of pain in the future but will be worthwhile in the years ahead.
Also Aussie in Köln. and I'd say If anything it makes you appreciate Australia more, because we forget as Aussies how spread our and absolutely massive our cities are, our setups aren't to bad within the big cities themselves, but considering what Germany has for infrastructure between cities and countries, yeah nah it's pretty bad nowadays.
Germans love to complain on a high level. Sure, at some point it makes sense, but come on, it's not that bad after all
Great to see that you’ve become more and more German.
Being angry, annoyed and complaining about everything is almost a national identity here.
@@Relinquicide
You absolutely can not compare Australia with Germany.
Australia only has very few very big cities around which the majority of the population in the country is located. So it’s way easier to build a Tram, underground and train network.
Germany has in every part of the country a fairly big or decent sized city or metropolitan area which all need to be connected with each other. The train lines are spread like a spiders web throughout the country. It’s way more difficult and costly to maintain such a big and chaotically shaped (due to the location of the big cities) train network.
To be fair Cologne is the trainwreck of Germany's rail system. It's the absolute worst of the worst for many reasons.
I’m from Texas and spent August 2023 in Germany visiting about a half dozen cities for a few days each. I was very pleased with the public transportation system. The DB app as well as Apple and Google maps all made my travels very easy.
I don't want to be the arrogant European but you guys have (no/) different standards when it comes to this. Compared to Switzerland or even Italy German trains suck
@@masterchief-vd1xsNo, the trains itself are really nice and much better than the Italian ones. Germanys problem is just that they massively underfunded the railways for decades. Especially in the western part of the country where everything is from the 70s it’s just horrible to drive with the train since nothing is working anymore. If you go to the East of Germany everything is pretty much on time since almost every track got updated from 1990-2010. Berlin and Leipzig central station have the best ratio of population/trains being on time.
I have to agree. The DB App is massively helpful and really well made.
9:13 I was just in Stuttgart. The train station hands down is the worst experience I had in Germany. It also takes forever to walk from the underground area to the main station platforms.
I hope this comment is out dated one day.
This train station in particular currently gets heavily remodeled, going from above-ground terminal station to subterranean through station.Yes, there are chances it will better one day 😄
Agree completely
I never go there, this city is a nightmare, I wouldn't recomment it
well, that doesn't come as a surprise when major construction works take place on site, right?
Now imagine how long the walk at Munich Central Station is from the end of one wing station to the end of the other wing station. It's a longer walk than in Stuttgart - without any construction works going on at that part of Munich Central Station. That's under plain normal conditions
It had very short access from the trains to the underground by elevator and an underground tunnel. The whole train stations needed to move 300 meters to make room for the construction site. This results in 500 m you need to walk now. The train station is a temporary structure.
I lived in Munich from 2004-2008, they have been talking about building that second tunnel for a looong time. Glad to see it finally happening, great work B1M
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I just railed around Germany last month. Rode from Vienna to Nuremberg to Stuttgart and Ulm. It went pretty well. The construction in Stuttgart was intense, huge site.
Then you went lucky or you probably haven’t really used a lot of regional train services. I live in Hamburg and I rail around a lot and I can count down the amount of times I arrived on time in the last 10 years on one hand. However it is fair to say that I usually use regional train services and the metronom Eisenbahngesellschaft, which runs the regional services between Hamburg and Bremen as well as Hamburg and Hannover is probably the worst of the lot, they can’t even keep their trains in shape and cancellations are usually the outcome
So you railed around Southern Germany. If you'd like to keep that happy memory, don't go to NRW
@cheers1905 How will any other experience change the one I already had?
Are you saying that the southern trains are better?
@ NRW is the state with the highest population density, which means you have more trains and lines which cause more chaos. Trains in southern germany are usually a bit more reliant than that but they’re still not exactly great
@@phillippalmejar9548They arent
German joke: when you miss the train at 10 AM, you can still take the train from 9 AM ...
Alright, most of the time it's not that bad. There are delays, lots of them, but most delays aren't in the scale of hours. Germans absolutely love to complain on a high level
At the same time some lines haven't been allowed to operate into Switzerland because they're not reliable enough to meet the standards. However it's bad by German standards, there's much worse out there.
Yes germans love to complain but that is irrelevant here. Germany has factually one of the most often delayed trains in the whole of europe. Every german I know has horrible experiences with Deutsche Bahn - you go on the train and you're filled with anxiety. It's embarassing, especially as the 3rd biggest economy in the world.
I mean, the main problem is that the trains are too popular/that the network is overburdened.
So if germans keep complaining a bit more, and less trains have to run, the problem solves itself.😉
Could be a lot worse. Could be US or Canada with their lack of passenger railways
@@ph11p3540 true, true
Nicely summarized, and very timely, with the Riedbahn corridor reopening in a week from now. However, I have to say this full shutdown and rerouting made a lot of sense. The bus replacement service for regional stations between Mannheim and Frankfurt apparently worked flawlessly, and the long-distance trains, while taking longer, actually ran on time. So my travels usually took 30min to 1h longer - for trips that would be 3-6h total - but I basically wasn't late anymore. Now I'm looking forward to the statistics of trains on this corridor.
Wow, didn't know it's already coming to a close soon, and on time too. Am super impressed, that's basically unheard of from our german construction industry xD
I think so, too. Years of slow-moving construction would've been way worse.
That 6-month shutdown is nothing compared to what's going on between Emmerich and Oberhausen. 80 weeks of closures!!
@@112Haribo Yes, I've not taken that route towards Utrecht twice now...
@@Loren1389 Deutsche Bahn track works is ususally quite punctual. Not much dependency on external powers, I think. And "just" renewing tracks is something they are really efficient in.
Knowing the cities mentioned well I can only admire your accurate documentation including the images, you have gained my trust!
What many people also forget is that the majority of investments for the German railway network over the last 30 years had to go into the modernization and reconstruction of the East German railway system after reunification.
The (formerly) West German state-owned railway company DB, fully took over the East German state-owned railway company…
Actually not took over. The Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) and the Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR) were both dissolved and replaced by the Deutsche Bahn AG (also abbreviated DB)
@@nacaclanga9947 only on paper
West German infrastructure was almost as bad as the one in East Germany at that time. At least, the DR didn't put as many secondary lines out of service as the DB (until 1994).
AND the punctuality and reliability in these eastern states is way better than in the rest of Germany. Munich - Berlin for example runs pretty well
The German Railway system (formerly state owned on both sides of the wall) was intentionally worked to the ground for privatization reasons. Most of the "investments" were put into making the DB AG his own hardest enemy, in the form of a road-spedition.
Transportation for goods and people was always a balanced system, one financing the other.
But now we see, you can't provide the network just on ticket prices. As a lot of ppl had argued back in the days.
Ironically the shape of Germany makes it hard as there are many choke points , while in France , Paris is essentially the spoke of the wheel where trains branch out in many directions
That is also due to a difference in philosophy. Germany has multiple trains a day, with more stops and a lower average speed. Whereas France has a lower frequency, but with less stops and higher average speed. I personally prefer the flexibility that the German system offers.
@ :Huh?? No. France has the TGV network AND the TER network. The latter stops everywhere and uses historical lines. TGV travels on new dedicated HSR lines (and then can extend on the historical lines to reach provincial destinations directly).
@@lours6993ter lines have pretty bad and random frequencies though, compared to german rb and re trains
@@lours6993 TER is often times absolutely terrible when compared to German regional rail. It's way less frequent, sometimes has no regular gaps between trains at all and has poor coverage.
I don't think thats because of germany's shape. The reason is of historical nature. France has many centuries of history of beeing governed from Paris. It has a long history of centralisation and anti-federalism. Paris, or Versaille, has been the unchallenged center of France since Louis XIV. Germany has a long history of emphasizing federalism. Thus hindering centralization efforts. Also the capital of west Germany was Bonn, and east Germany was Broke AF.
The 3D models and animations are really beneficial for understanding, Thank you for including them!
Fantastic! Thank you so much, especially for the really cool perspectives from above and from beneath.
Thanks!
Honestly, i recently took 4 regional trains to get from Frankfurt Airport to Esslingen, which is 215km away and it all went extremely smooth. I reached all my trains on time, they all arrived within 2 mins of when they were supposed to and in the end i got there a few mins ealier than i expected. To top it all off, i got on a bus which also arrived exactly then when it was schedudled to arrive. I was positively surprised.
The punctuality problem lies in the high speed trains. The regional ones are usually either on time or mostly up to 5 mins late
I’ve been working in railway management for over 15 years by now, and I always have to laugh when a new government comes in and has some very expensive plan to “save the railways” (mostly including an army of very expensive consultants that produce reports with very few new insights).
Providing in a performant rail network is at its most efficient when former governments just wouldn’t be so keen on sabotaging operations; we’ve been doing this for over 100 years, people in the industry know how to do this. It’s not rocket science, just investing in what has to be done…
Consultants and contractors just don't have the same incentives as staffers. Sometimes they do good work (e.g. SNCF in Morocco, al Boraq), other times they blow up the costs (e.g. EDF in the UK, Hinkley Point C for another French example). That said, part of that is poor management of said contractors/consultants.
Contrary to the governments before the current one (although having fallen apart) at least decided to spend this money - before there also were a lot of words but no actions
maybe you can shed some light on this for me, why the hell does munich not just build a ring around the city instead of yet another railway? Like, large parts of a ring would already be completed anyway, it would just be connecting them and adding another line next to the existing one, which is way easier to do since its above ground...
can we talk more about that sabotage bit
@@pottedrosepetal6906 I'm not involved in the decision making around that project so I don't consider myself to be knowledgeable enough to provide concrete answers.
I was in Germany in August and in Munich for Adele. 1st The trains were always on time and very fast much more efficient than I’ve ever witnessed in the UK. 2nd They were way better at handing huge crowds and keeping things moving. 3rd Trains were more Morden and better maintained than any other train network I’ve experienced. Munich as a whole was amazing, very clean and nice people.
If you went to Adele you probably took the U-Bahn, no? They are operated by the city and not connected to the railway network. They are usually pretty good in Germany along with trams.
The trains that took people to Adele were the U-bahn, always operated by local cities themselves, here the MVG. The issue mentioned here is the Nation wide rail operator DB, with their nation wide network. The S-Bahn system in munich is part of the DB and the run on on their rail infrastructure, which is old and overloaded, so the munich S-Bahn is the issue here, and not the U-bahn. The U-bahn runs on a completely seperated infrastructure detached from the main rail, thus noone usually complains about it as it's super reliable and has rarely any issues.
@@mmd77777 The local rail for getting around within German cities is great! Only 4 cities in the UK have some kind of underground local rail network, compared to over 20 in Germany and only 7 have trams, compared to over 60 in Germany. Birmingham, similar in size to Munich only has one tram line and Leeds doesn't even have that.
Germany has cities the size of Brighton or Coventry (300K) with underground/tram hybrid networks and they always use the same tickets as the bus network, even singles are valid on all local and regional bus and rail.
That's way better than in most of the UK, where a bus single is only valid on the first bus you get on and doesn't allow you to finish an entire single journey using multiple bus and rail lines.
The Munich U-Bahn is very reliable and punctual. The S-Bahn can’t be that reliable and punctual when you have a very long core route connecting almost all lines and a train every 2 minutes (the most used train route in Europe by traffic density). But when it works properly, it’s also a blessing and a very good means of transport to move from A to B here in the city as well.
Most of Germany isnt Like this, munich IS an excpetipn
I'm literally considering interrailing around Europe next summer thx for the heads up!
At least there is now a broad consensus, even among the next government, that a lot more investment in the railways is needed. The low point was already a few years ago. But it will still take a decade before you see positive effects.
Very true. There is hope!
I watched a video where someone explained that the train wouldn't have to be any faster if the experience customers had was more enjoyable, in fact the trains could go slower if people enjoyed being on them, and it would cost far less to make the ride enjoyable than it costs to make it faster.
@@theoriginalJP that depends. The Swiss railways are the slowest in Europe but are universally liked. But they only transport as many people as the Berlin s-Bahn and only short distances. The DB competes not only with cars but also with aircraft. That‘s why it needed to be fast. But the speed is not the problem. The capacity is the problem. The demand has grown a lot, but capacity has remained stagnant. And the network has a lot of choke points. Especially in central western Germany. They need to be removed. But it takes time and less fraud projects but many small improvements.
@@tobiwan001 60b still sounds like a far underestimate of what it's going to cost to physically expand the system
@ yes. That’s the B1M number. The German government is saying something more in the 200bn to 300bn range. They doubled annual investments but it would take too long. That’s why there will likely be a further increase or a separate budget.
Also I would favour increasing ticket prices as lower ticket prices of the last few years have exacerbated the problem - predictably.
60 billion doesn’t sound like a lot for a country the size of Germany…? That’s less than the cost of Paris’s metro expansion?
We are busy spending more money on roads sorry :/
what 60 billion is plenty, but I guess the law that forbids making new debt as a state limits germanys investions
A person making $10/hour, 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, would have to work for over three million years to make that much money. You should be careful dismissing huge expenditures.
@@dansands8140 $10/hour is below the minimum wage in Germany and way below the wage of skilled workers. You need thousands of them to pull it off.
So yeah, $60bn to overhaul the entire country's railway infrastructure is not that much, especially considering all the bureaucratic bs you have to go through in Germany.
IT ISNT. investment was cut and plans to make trains puncual again have been delayed to the mid 2070s
One of the main issues that are plagueing DB is actually the "rail reform" from about thirty years ago. It was essentially a privatization.
The DB is now not a state operator but a public company (although the state holds all its shares). This essentially means that DB is now legally required to aim for the highest profit, not for the best service. Stuttgart 21 is a good example for this: Similar to train station projects in the US, the main objective of moving the train station below ground is creating high value real estate above.
Also, the way the infrastructure has been split off essentially means that while the maintenance of existing lines has to be funded by the DB, new construction is funded by government grants, which means that DB is financially incentivized to let rail lines break down and close them and have the government build shiny and expensive high speed rail lines that will turn them a profit. At least this point has been somewhat mitigated by the creation of the reconstruction fund by the outgoing government, but soon again the transport ministry will most probably revert from being held by a somewhat competent Auto lobbyist to a totally incompetent Auto lobbyist. Note that even the increase government money isn't enough to arrive at the "Deutschlandtakt", and integrated regular schedule for the entire country.
Also, much of the regional train service is run by private companies that extract their own profit out of the government contracts they receive for operation, and as these local rail companies are often owned by foreign state rail companies like trenitalia, ÖBB etc., essentially German state companies pay for the rail systems in other countries.
Bravo! The opposing interests accurately displayed. Genau auf den Punkt gebracht, danke.
you omit that it wasn't only the DB that was privatised back then. Telekom and the German post were also privatised at the same time, and both haven't had the same extreme issues as DB. So clearly you can't just put the blame at privatisation.
@@onurbschrednei4569 German internet is notoriously slow and unreliable. A common long distance train journey between two big cities in austria goes through germany and you *always* lose connection as soon as you enter germany, and it only comes back once you reenter austria
No, there quite a lot of issues with DB, but privatization isnt one...see for exemple japan which has private railroads as well.
@@XKING91This shows that you really have absolutely no idea about the issue. Large parts of the rail tracks where cut off to increase profits through depreciation
A country that you wouldn’t expect to have a decent railway system is Italy… the process of replacing old trains is almost finished… delays are becoming the exception and high speed service is one of the best made in the world. Also the application of Trenitalia is really well made and the various services offered by Trenitalia are very nice.
isnt making the trains run on time the mantra of the modern italian state?
And yet the local public transportation system in Rome sucked when I was there
@@baab4229 I don't see how Rome having mediocre public transport relates to the national railway system of Italy. Did you travel around rome via regional trains or what?
As a German I have to applaud your precise research on the German railway system as well as accurate German pronounciation!
3:02 thank you for some love
More videos about Germany pls maybe even Berlin and its future Modenisied ring and lineupdating great video I’m From Germany myself and love how accurate this video has been keep it up
As a Berliner and frequent customer of the DB - this isn't just some abstract thing, this is VERY noticeable in everyday life and the difference compared to ten or twenty years ago is MASSIVE. Also it affects the BVG, Berlins local transportation company, just as much now. Everything is extremely overcrowded and nothings ever on time anymore.
I visited both Stuttgart and Munich this past summer and wow, the amount of construction was insane, but what was crazier was how there were almost 0 delays. My experience may be atypical, so I can only hope this megaproject is completed for Germany soon. Danke and greetings from America!
Very well researched! Better than anything I could find in the German media. Thank you from Berlin 🙏
Great video very informative but you did not mention the proposed major change at Franfurt hauptbahnhof. Like Stuttgart DB are currently performing feasabilty studies on how best to allow north - south ICE trains to pass striaght through the staion (underground of course) in a similiar manner to that nearing completion in Stuttgart. A certain amount of funds have already been allocated and it seems a preferred route is already being discussed after 4 or 5 variations were considered.
Still, Stuttgart is already too small, when finished, and they are making similar mistakes in Frankfurt.
@@gelber_kaktus Why dont we wait and see? Or can you share the data which supports your statement?
@@gelber_kaktus they aren't because while the station only has four tracks, the upper terminus station stays intact. As part of a separate project, it will even gain another platform (more is not possible without removing major roads or tearing down buildings).
The underground station can handle 10-15 high speed trains per hour and direction, even with a four-minute stop time, allowing more traffic on the terminus station.
The target schedule sees 8,5 HS trains per hour on the underground station, 2 trains/hour on top because they terminate and a 2-horuly service still changing directions.
RUclips is your friend.
@ I think you may need to do more research.
At least Germany are going big - contrasts with the UK and its HS2 and northern powerhouse plans that have been stopped, restarted, scaled back, and still in much doubt.
I'm still distraught over those projects being massively sabotaged
As an outsider HS2 seems to be all pain and no gain at this point.
@@york2600 In its current state yes. a fast connection between London and Birmingham is fine and will provide a nice capacity boost but HS2 in full would literally be as if we built 4 brand new mainlines all at once, which is as huge as you imagine.
It does seem that the UK might end up in the same place if it can't make the same investment now. Munich is building a second cross city tunnel when cities like Birmingham and Manchester don't even have one (Manchester in particular needs something to reduce congestion on the Castlefield corridor which is one of the busiest sections of railway in the country).
@@Croz89Birmingham could do with an alternative line that avoids New Street.
I live near Stuttgart and I see forward to enjoy the new train station, the new railways and easier access to the main station itself. Digitalisation and new train stations all across will make it more efficient and less delays. All will be good some day, I want to believe!
Always nice to see your outside view on my country! 😎🙏🇩🇪
Visited Germany for the first time in September. Was excited to try out the DB and had 4 trips planned between cities.
2 cancelled trains (which resulted in me losing my reserved seats so I had to stand for 4hrs in full trains) and all 4 trips arrived over 45 mins late.
Learned very quickly that next time I visit, I’ll just fly between cities.
4 trips with 45+ minutes of delay? That's about the same number of delays I had in riding trains across Germany in more than a decade
"I’ll just fly between cities." and then? You'll arrive at an airport far outside the city and might still take a 1 hour ride on the train to get into the city. Taking the train all the way is definetly faster than that
Well, you did get yourself the proper German experience. You really felt what it's like to live here. No amount of sightseeing or city trips could have provided you those insights. So there's that.
@@EnjoyFirefighting It depends a lot on which time and which route you are taking. Some are pretty reliable and some are horrendous
tell me you're American without saying you're American...
@@EnjoyFirefighting With enough luck you can have this many delays in one week, if you are reliant on DB for everyday commutes in the wrong region.
Superb content! Your channel is always impressive, interesting…. and growing fast. Keep up the good work. 👍🏼
On a positive note: The Riedbahn renovations seem to have been completed on time. I live in one of the smaller towns on the line and starting tomorrow, the trains start rolling again. :)
Gutes Video! sehr schön zusammengefasst.
Finally, I've traveled so often with the Deutsche Bahn and about 80% of the time I had some delay or even cancellations making the trip hours longer. Every time I'm scared again getting into a DB train not knowing if I'm gonna make it home this time 😅😅
Do you have an appointment at home to be on time?
"Bahnsinn Riedbahn" sums up many of the issues quite nicely. What's doubly interesting is that it's made by Deutsche Bahn. Yes, they are actually critically looking at their shortcomings, while also demonstrating the immense challenges they face.
I interrailed last July and stayed in Munich for a couple of days and loved it! Arrived from Prague in Ostbahnof and departed to Paris in Hauptbahnof, neither of them had any delays :)
Sometimes miracles happen 😉
Wow, watching your videos for some years now and today my hometown was visible in the section about the "Riedbahn". Next week the trains are supposed to travel again on these tracks. And the whole project was within it's projected timespan. That's quite unusual for such big projects in Germany - not all projects must become a BER 😅
Thank you for all your hard work for these videos!
happy to hear its not just the UK!
The UK and Germany both suffer similar issues... Conservative governments have enjoyed growth and low interest rates without spending enough in infrastructure and public services.
@@maximusg88 The UK and Germany are facing similar problems.... Your conservative governments they are not conservatives, they are far left 🤮Greetings from Poland
@@karo2090 oh god... enjoy your Russian propaganda of Law and Justice
@@maximusg88Oh just open your window and look outside.
No but the UK is still in its own league when it comes to public infrastructure cost
According to recent news, the Riedbahn seems to finished in time, so that works pretty well as prove for the concept.
I was out there in the summer for the football, couldn’t believe how many trains were delayed or cancelled having grown up being told about German efficiency and how good European public transport is, at least it’s still a lot cheaper than British trains!
It quite possibly still was that way back when you did your growing up. But that's what 16 consecutive years of conservative administration do to a country.
@@lonestarr1490As if only conservative governments are incompetent in that regard, they all have been in the last 30 years. The social democrats have been part of government in Germany for a total of 22 years since 1998.
Wondering where the high-speed railways are, going anywhere takes forever. Way longer than similar distances in France!
Japan:we have the fastest and most on time trains
Germany:my trains and service are decent but needs improvement
Hungary:you guys have a working train infrastructure?
Totally right!
When i compare my country today with others in Europe, others are better!
I hope, this will change! ❤❤❤❤❤
The system is extremely well designed but became a victim of its own success. I thought this video was going to talk about Riedbahn, Karlsruhe Basel and Hanau Fulda capacity improvements but instead Riedbahn was only mentioned towards the end and mainly focused on Munich and Stuttgart 21, both of which have less impact on the entire DB network. Missed opportunity.
This will become one of the worlds best tourist destinations if I can help in any way possible I will ❤️❤️
Stuttgart 21 is not too bad overall, the big problem is that they refuse to keep the old station open in addition
Great visualisations and diagrams!
The 2nd trunk line is heavily disputed among local traffic and railway engineers. The main point of critics is that they could have upgraded the northern and southern ring for far less money. Benefits would have been, that the resilience of the local network would have been improved more than with a second trunk line while also improving tangential connections. Additionally, big corporations like BMW in the north would have gotten a direct connection to regional PT. In its current form this upgrade feels like last millennium policy
The upgrades can be done easier gradually later
BMW in the north is served by 2 subway lines, has more than a dozen public bus stops, and then there's even BMW internal bus services between the different parts of the plants as well
They don't rule each other out. Of course, the ring should be reactivated for passengers!
Exakt, eine Ringbahn wäre günstiger und würde den Immobilienmarkt nicht noch mehr anheizen. München ist bereits teuerste Stadt Deutschlands. Eine Ringbahn verteilt alles besser
@@ArefRichardForster-mr2qjDie Ringbahn wird zusätzlich zur 2. Stammstrecke benötigt, nicht stattdessen. Die Projekte schließen sich nicht aus!
I visit my family in Germany all the time and I can say at least from their perspective they don't like the disruption or cost but if it means fixing the network and making it efficient to them its worthwhile.
My main concern is how to survive all of these financial and political crisis, especially in light of the US political power scuffle. The government has really called things more difficult for its citizens, and we can't sit back and bear all the consequences of the bad governance.
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Glad to see some overdue investment in the train system. As a visitor I just assumed German trains would be like clockwork, my train from Wetzlar to Frankfurt today took 93 minutes for the 52 kilometres!
Don‘t underestimate the Germans. I am optimistic that we’ll have a high performing German rail network once again within the next 5-10 years. Deutsche Bahn already does a lot of things very well and is quickly sorting out the sources of their biggest problems. Our rail network is visibly moving in the right direction and the pace is increasing. Of course not everything is rainbows and sunshine but I refuse to be pessimistic about this.
I hope you are right, but I doubt it. As long as we do not have a high speed network separated from other trains in and around the big German cities we'll have problems. And that's not an easy task because normaly there's no space for extra tracks...
Thing is, DB *used* to be good. You speak to millennial and older Germans and they'll say the service in the 00's was much better, not perfect but playing more into the German stereotype. A decade of underinvestment has caused service to decline.
The Problem is the Lack of funding... if you want a reliable DB you have to spend much more Money than some Partys want to
Not 5-10 years thats way to little time more like 20-30 years
Many Germans right now are in a state of toxic pessimism and defeatism which is a real danger to making progress. Many people act as if the pitiful state of DB is due to a vague boogeyman like 'bureaucracy' or Germans not being as orhanized anymore as they used to be, and don't want imptlrovement. The truth is that much of this is the result of ideological choices to neglect public transport and be totally beholden to the car lobby by the Union. Change can happen and we need to believe things can get better.
Rerouting at Riedbahn was a decision that really payed off.
Similar renovation projects were done while still having traffic through the route, and it took years to finish,
now Riedbahn had to be rerouted for a couple of months, but is now finished.
Maybe for some of the other projects it would be smart to try and finish some small part of it instead of embarking on huge megaprojects all at the same time.
I used to live in Schoneweide (in Berlin), and the old train station building there (I believe intended to be refurbished) had been closed for years, and it even took them years to refurbish two short platforms.
Another station, I cannot remember the name of it right now (near Ostkreuz) has been filled with scaffolding for years, and shows no signs of being removed soon?
I don't know why, but construction work progresses at a painfully glacial pace, and I have no idea why.
I'm living in Warsaw, Poland again now, and everything gets done quickly. There are no projects that stand for multiple years without seemingly progressing at all, despite seeing construction workers being present there.
True. I live in western Germany and I've experienced basic construction sites sitting open for months on end with nobody in sight doing anything. Simple roadworks take years and most of that time you don't see anyone working! What's wrong with our construction industry?
The station near Ostkreuz you refer to is Ostbahnhof - and the scaffolding is nearly completely removed now. The station actually looks pretty decent now.
I think the construction industry in Germany is so slow because of extremely complex regulations and high labour costs. Every stakeholder from environmentalists, historians, government agencies, ... needs to be included and have a say in public building projects while coping with 1000s of regulations for fire protection, building material, sustainability, anti corruption, ... It's just a mess.
The station you are looking for near ostkreuz is called Ostbahnhof :) And it it still not fully done lol
It is very true with the S-Bahn expansion between Bamberg and Nuremberg. There is one part between Eltersdorf station and Regnitz river that hasn't been expanded from two to four tracks for almost ten years. Deutsche Bahn finally completed the four-track route from Fürth central station to Regnitz river bridge only few years ago and the Eltersdorf station (from two to four tracks) only earlier this year.
@@nichtJanMarsalek And those irritating Wutbürger (angry citizens) who keep finding ways to block the constructions. In Nuremberg, the U3 western expansion was put on hold for a while due to one citizen filing the lawsuit because of noise abatement programme was "insufficient" enough.
I didn't skip your sponsorship sequence because it's very appropriate and well integrated with the rest of your video, and frankly very interesting.
I do think however that you should make it clear when a sponsorship sequence begins.
You could for example show a QR code when the sponsorship sequence begins.
What they should also focus on removing are the endless rows of bureaucrats slowing the building process through endless paper processes. The money that is wasted on the bureaucracy part could be invested into better build quality (materials, labor, features).
SJ Euronight is a sleeper train service running from Stockholm to Berlin.
It's honestly a miracle if it arrives on time in Stockholm. And not only that, SJ suggests to have a 2 hour minimum spare time for connections. On regular SJ trains that's more like 15 mins. So it's not a small delay either, that regularly occur.
My comment is more on time than the Deutsche Bahn
Been working in railway management for over 15 years by now. It’s not rocket science, just investing in what has to be done… but then there’s politicians…
@@Parakeet-pk6dl EU and their oil lobbyists interests.
Loved seeing this as a munich enjoyer - thank you
Will we see a video about Notre Dame soon?
We made one already!
@@TheB1MIt's horrible isn't? So basic and minimalistic in a "modernist" style. The walls are all bare and the ceilings too. Ain't no Michelangelo to be found on those ones.
And yet they spent a billion on what? An altar that looks like some tub out of a modernist bathroom
I was in Stuttgart in 1998. I remember seeing their design for Stuttgart 21. Crazy that 25 years later it's still somewhat of a dream.
Honestly, a project the size and complexity like Stuttgart 21 costing 11bn isn't something crazy high. Expecting that it only costs 4bn was just naive.
Just look at the "Durchmesserlinie" in Zurich. It is ONE tunnel. ONE bridge. And only four new platforms at Zurich HB. And it already cost 1.5bn.
Stuttgart is at least 10x larger and at much more complex. Good infrastructure is just expensive.
But people don't realize that bad/easy infrastructure like Autobahn is as expensive. It is just build in smaller increments, for much less capacity.
Stupid plans are expensive. Instead of letting high speed trains stop at the Stuttgart airport and connect the city (who wants to visit this city?) from there local „politicians“ forced both government and DB into this stupid nightmare if Stuttgart 21. We had the same with each and ever new high speed line in German. Frankfurt-Cologne got two additional stations just 30km apart only to please local politics and convert a high speed connection into a joke on track. This is like forcing direct flights from Hamburg to Munich to have two stops Cologne and Düsseldorf.
Last nail into the coffin of high speed connections: They have to share the tracks with all kind of slower passenger and non passenger trains.
This country wasted over decades billions of Euro into more concrete for roads and highways. Some countries are driven by good ideas, this country is only able to let fat people drive cars without any sense 24 hours a day.
Never would i thought that B1M will do a video about my Hometown and talk about the Stations i always get out 😂
Die Generalsanierungen sind wichtig und richtig, aber es braucht auch Neubaustrecke um die Kapazitäten, die Flexibilität, die Zuverlässigkeit und die Geschwindigkeit zu erhöhen!
As a person from Mainz, the Riedbahn construction was certainly very very noticable
darmstadt here, it sucked.
The thing that has me worried most with the planned overhaul of the mainline corridors is that, once finished, the political will to keep investing in the railway network will be gone. This great refurbishment of the railways has to be seen as a first step, not as the solution to germanys rail transport issues. The trains and tracks are already completely packed and some corridors are running beyond capacity 24/7 because the demand is so incredibly high to get people and freight on the tracks. Refurbishing the existing network will not greatly increase capacity, but merely stabilise it for the future. I really hope that once the major refurbishment scheme is done the german gouvernment will keep investing into the rail infrastructure i.e. build, upgrade and even revive derelict infrastructure to keep up with the demand.
One of the most significant problems DB is faced with, is the combined use of track throats by regional and high speed trains to and from main hubs. Have seen quite a few of these ‘works in progress’ updates, but somehow this particular problem still seems to be under the influence of serious back tracking. Also missed it in this one.
Well done Germany for recognising the problem and sinking a big investment into it. We all like to laugh at DB, but to be honest it's not *that* bad (speaking as a Brit I cringe at our lamentable network). In my experience it's slow speed compared to France and there's lots of delays, but it's a functioning high-volume system overall. There's actually a pretty good foundation to build on.
As a Brit, please try to memorise how BR was in the early 1980s. Well, as a German who experienced BR in the 1980s, I can say: That is DB in the 2020s! 😭😱 (I have no idea how BR is today, to be honest)
@@BricksOnAnIsland I remember the tail end of BR in the '90s. It was terrible, and then it got worse with privatisation, until eventually the rails started falling apart, there were several crashes and the whole lot had to be speed-limited. After that there started to be more investment. My experience of DB is mainly crossing between France and Austria, so a bit limited. DB trains and customer service are worse than SNCF or ÖBB, plus you can feel the foreign trains slow right down when you cross the border, but they do still go. I've never actually been completely stuffed by a cancelled or broken down train crossing Germany (while I was several times in the UK in the old days), so in my experience DB is bad, but could be a lot worse, and you didn't let it get as bad as we did before deciding to do something about it. Even the stations that everyone loves to hate, like Stuttgart, are busy and badly laid out, rather than completely broken and half abandoned as they were at our worst point.
@@bimblinghill The good thing about DB: almost no crashes at all. But within the last two years me, my wife and some of our holiday guests experienced more delays and cancelled trains than ever before. Traveling from southern Germany via Frankfurt and Collogne to the north sea was sometimes like a lottery, especially in the summer of 2023. It is frustrating when your holiday guests call you from their departure station near Stuttgart in the morning tellling you that it is already clear before they even enter the first train that they will miss the last ferry to our Island (North Sea). And they had planed with a time buffer of more than 3 hours! Two months ago (september 2024) my wife's train from Frankfurt was cancelled. She decided to at take a train to Collogne and stay there over night to ensure she reaches at least next days ferry home. In March her train to Hamburg terminated in Bremen.At least DB payed for her Taxi (!) to Hamburg Airport so she could catch her flight. And so on...
@@BricksOnAnIsland Sounds like I was lucky!
Taking the Stammstrecke to and from work every day I want to highlight how well it is coping with the much larger than anticipated usage, and how central it is to getting around in Munich. Nevertheless the new line will definately supercharge traffic in and around the city - I am really looking forward to it.
It is also great to see the progress they are making on the other projects. Riedbahn went quite well but there is quite some confidence of the public to win back with large construction projects in Germany. With these (hopefully) trust in the rail system in general will follow.
You hinted at the main problem with the Deutsche Bahn infrastructure, that is, there are no dedicated high speed lines. Freight, commuter and ICE all travel on the same network, meaning the inevitable problems with any part of it cascade to the other constituent parts. It is the overtaking lanes that you mention at 11:30 that the system desperately needs
another option is to separate ICE from other trains by using hedicated lines (sometimes just part of the same corridor).
There definetly ARE dedicated HSR corridors, like from Nuremberg to Ingolstadt, Leipzig to Erfurt and beyond, Frankfurt to Cologne, Stuttgart to Ulm etc. These HSR corridors are, with minor exceptions, used by high-speed passenger trains only, with freight trains running on slower rail lines in the area.
@@michawisniewski4654 The system should have been set up that way right from the start. Like Japan did with their Shinkansen, which was the very first HSR in the world and remains to be the very best to this day. But they thought they could achieve the same thing cheaper by just using the tracks that were already there. A historic blunder that will forever haunt the German highspeed rail.
@@lonestarr1490 A system like in Japan would not work for Germany. In Japan, most of the population is located along a dense corridor along the coasts, meaning only a few high-speed lines are needed to server a large amount of the population. In Germany, the population is more spread out into many medium-sized cities. A completely dedicated high-speed network would never be able to reach an extent where enough of these mid-sized towns would be able to be served. Japan has 12 cities with >1mil. population, Germany has only 4.
And the separate network in Japan wasn't born out of choice but out of necessity, as the conventional network uses narrow-gauge railways, on which speeds of over 120 km/h are impossible. In comparison, in Germany even regional services run at 160 km/h a lot of the time and some conventional routes allow for speeds of up to 200 km/h.
Germany needs more dedicated high-speed lines, yes. These lines need to be built along the main corridors of high-speed travel to allow high-speed trains to run separately from other services to circumvent these highly congested lines. But a completely separate network makes no sense at all and would result in longer travel times and worse connections for many people, as a completely dedicated high-speed network would never be able to serve as many people as the current ICE network does. Just google for a map of Germany's ICE network and a map of Japan's Shinkansen network. Their extent isn't comparable in the slightest.
I always think its funny how in the US the rail enthusiasts always complain about the freight companys owning the tracks and such the passenger trains must play by the rules of the freight companys, while in Germany people complain about the opposit (e.g. that we are unsuccessful in shifting more freight from the Autobahn to the railways because passenger rail always has priority)
I think it's always important to think of the contractor situation. Now that the DB has built a lot of things, it gave infrastructure building companies an opportunity to specialise in rail building. That helps with getting things done on time and with a higher quality
It's well worth comparing Crossrail/Elizabeth Line in London with Stuttgart 21:
Both projects were conceptualised in the 90s and required a lot of tunnel boring, construction began for both around 2010. In London, they estimated 16£ bln. In the end, they paid a little over 19bln, 4 years delayed.
S21, however, was estimated to cost 2.5€ bln, a riddiculously little number for a project with such a scale. A very naive, actually very stupid perspective, which unfortunately is very common within Germany. Delay will be 7 years, final costs somewhere around 12€ bln.
I can't help but blame the concept here of how governments must look for and select contractors for their work. They have to make a public announcement and then take the cheapest option that fulfills their requirements and there are some requirements on showing that the contractor actually has the capacity to build at this scale, but the cost thing is a major factor. Of course this is intended to keep people from handing jobs to a friend's company who will charge inflated prices and that does make sense.
However, it also ends up with contractors sending in proposals that lowball prices and time estimates wherever they can get away with it. So the delivery time and budget has to be checked by the government - who at this point need an enormous amount of in-house experience with projects like this to make a feasibility-check. Alternatively they can get consultants to do this for them with whom they run into the same issue - they have to go for cheap options and hope their selection criteria and checks work.
I don't think dropping all these requirements would make it all magically better. We need policies and processes to prevent nepotism when handing out billion-euro-project contracts. But the way we are handling this right now is just not doing us a lot of favors.
I recently lived in Osnabrück for a few years and had to take the A30 highway to work, which is part of the direct road from Amsterdam to Warsaw. You could always tell when there's been a container ship with goods for Poland unloaded in Amsterdam, as the eastbound side would be choked with Polish and Dutch trucks.
There really needs to be more cargo train capacity on that route as well.
The lack of investments took years to show the bad effects. It will take at least the same time to undo this.
They even stripped down the system, now lacking redundancy and capacity. e.g. they shut down multiple sites in and around Berlin in the past 30 years, and now are lacking capacity to park trains, so they need so circle around the city or park hours outside of Berlin.
I moved to Germany in 2020….it really is terrible! Thanks to the mess during the Euros that really helped kick DB up the butt!
Bring on the improvements 🎉
Talking about German Trains.... I was in Berlin from 3-7 Dec. Right at the beginning from the DB train from Copenhagen to Hamburg till the train I left Germany, Berlin to Amsterdam, including all S-Bahn trains while I was in Berlin, all of them were delayed, from 5 mins to hours, a 45mins for a S-Bahn delay was really crazy. The only train service which could be more punctual is the U-Bahn, maybe it's just my luck.😂
So the munich project started 7 years ago and is still 11+ years away from completion, just like when it started. There was an alternative idea to use a southern route on existing tracks which would have been a lot cheaper and quicker - and encouraged more spread out/balanced development by providing more city area with awesome service.
While stationed in Germany in 1977, I took a train from Frankfurt to Kaiserslautern. The interior was spotless, the ride was smooth and quiet, and on time. Apparently, not so much these days...
the interior of most long distance trains is actually quite nice and if everything works as planned, it's comfortable journey. However, that interior doesn't help the passengers stranded at some train station, because the train didn't arrive our they missed their connection.
Still applies today, except the punctuality
3:10 - "Back in 1972...Munich unveiled S-Bahn" - Funnily, the S-Bahn line to the Olympic Park have been closed and overgrown for decades now xD
You can see it on the map to the left from Olympiapark.
While DB is at it's lowest point, it's still way ahead of many many other countries I travel via train on, and now it's getting a well needed refresh? I'm all in, these delays are generally of little problem, annoying yes, but can be fairly easily planned around.
The Riedbahn does seem to be quite the success story. As far as I know it is on time and within budget. And this the reason Deutsche Bahn and the German government elected to renovate the remaining key corridors the same. Let's hope the Riedbahn won't be the sole success story in their undertaking.
Ok this is a huge investment in railroads, hope they pull it trough ❤
Great video
Whenever I travel by train in Germany, mostly long journeys, I always put in at least 30 minutes for changing trains. It is too risky to go below 30 minutes, which is also kind of risky in itself, but mostly it works.
Yeah, and if you travel in the evening and have to change trains along your route, it is wise to never plan for the last connecting train, but at least one earlier. You're always allowed to use another train to get to your destination if you miss a connection, but if there isn't one, you're stuck. You can get compensation for even say a hotel stay over night or alternative mode of transport, but its obviously a hassle to do that.
I've been living in Berlin for the past two years. The trains do get late every once in a while, but for the most part they run well on time. Just sharing my experience.
Railways? Whole of Germany is falling apart. I visited Frankfurt and Cologne last year and couldn't believe how dilapidated everything's become.
Not a comparison since most of a cities infrastructure is not in the hand of the Bundesregierung.
As a railway engineer for a national company in eastern Europe, I find these kind of work incredible. I wish my country could invest at least 10% of what Germany is investing...
The DB is also an extremely weird corporation. It is somewhat of a regular for-profit LLC, but its sole owner is the German government. It completely fails at its operations, so it has to be heavily funded by the state to operate in any way. This leaves with a heavily over funded bureaucratic behemoth, which is totally incapable of performing even their basic duties.
There are other train operators in Germany, many of them operating slower trains over shorter distances. They too suffer from the DB being chronically incompetent at doing maintenance for the railways.
Continuing to let them operate like this is just negligent, the tax money they eat up, together with the prices they demand and the services they offer is totally unjustifiable. No company this badly run deserves to exist.
The DB shouldn't be a company. Public services shouldn't be operated on a for-profit mentality. The entire idea that market liberalisation is a foolproof way to vitalise the system is wrong.
Prioritising profits over public service is the exact reason that DB decided to neglect its rail network, abandon many branch lines, close unprofitable services, let stations rot and decay - and heavily invest into road logistics (Schenker) and other markets instead.
The past 30 years of DB mismanagement are entirely on the government(s) of those years, which could've changed laws, swapped managers, overhauled funding schemes etc.
The DB management did exactly what they were hired to do: squeeze the whole thing until it breaks.
I like that you shed light on this kind of subject. Most of the german population have no idea what is happening in the next couple of years and i think the comprehensive overhaul of this train system will be a game changer fo everyday life. It will probably get worse in the next couple of years before it will get better but i think thats a major achievement in the grand scheme of things.
Yes it has become more and more embarassing during the last 30 years. They removed lines, tracks and let the rest of the money flow in their own pockets. That's what you get if you combine a kind of state owned Deutsche Bahn with the "free" market ... They see and get money from both sides without improving the transport system. All this while increasing the ticket prices on a yearly basis of course ;).
Been working in railway management for over 15 years now, and I can honestly say that if the amount of cash that’s been spent on consultants just would’ve been used to manage daily operations, we wouldn’t be in such a dire situation now. It’s really frustrating for people in the industry to see how politicians mismanage the railways. You’re just not allowed to work efficiently.
The Riedbahn rebuild was a huge projekt which has been completed punctually and in time for the timetable change on 15. December. Our railways are in a shocking state and very overdue for maintenance. In June 2022, a train fell off the tracks at Burgrain, killing five passengers.
CDU/CSU and SPD have underfunded the railnetwork for years.
The founding for DB is *far* more than enough to operate and maintain a good train network. Money is not the problem, incompetence is.
@ the problem is a disfunctional rail network that needs repairwork at every second corner
@@13Luk6iul DB has more than enough resources to accomplish that. They are just chronically incompetent, so the money vanishes into anything except improved rail service.
@@jonassattler4489 may be. Insteqd of paying bonuses to management, they should use that money to the benefit of the network. but whatever the reason. DB needs to invest in its outdated infrastructure. Also germany has one of the worst high speed networks in western europe.
Luckily our last governemnt has made investments possible, as opposed to the previous ones.
@@jonassattler4489 well I can't really comment on how efficient the DB is run overall, but at least the capacity issues of the german rail network is nothing the DB can be held responsible for. Even if they wanted to extend existing lines or build new connections, they can't. It is by law the responsibility of the government to plan, approve and fund those. And this has not been done nearly as needed - and the DB and other train operators have been screeming about it for years. It is true though that it is the job of the former DB Netz AG (now InfraGO) to properly maintain the existing infrastructure. That indeed hasn't been done as much as needed either.
I live near Stuttgart. I regularly visit friends and family in Nuremberg. The line between the two cities is one of the oldest in Germany, and thus also one of the worst. The main stations of Nuremberg and Stuttgart alone are both torturous enough, but my trip usually takes about six hours if all goes well (which it often doesn't). I really do hope that DB can get their act together, but I highly doubt it.
3:02 There is an old saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
Unfortunately though, most governments around the world expand this to "If it ain't broke, don't maintain it." This is why much of the world infrastructure rots until billions need to be spent in upgrades. It is a major problem of the modern electoral cycle.
well researched, i can say as a german and frequent train traveler