Berlin – New rail boss Evelyn Palla does not expect any improvement in the woeful punctuality scores in long-distance transport any time soon.
“It’s not going to get any better at the moment, we have to be honest,” said the boss German trains the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”.
This year the punctuality rate is estimated to be below 60 percent. And in the coming year, the main focus will be to ensure that things don’t get worse.
Punctuality in DB’s long-distance transportation reached a new low of 51.5 percent in October. This figure has been below 60 percent every month since June.
A train is considered on time if it is less than six minutes late. After publishing the figures for September, the railway announced that its on-time target of 65 to 70 percent could no longer be achieved so far this year.
“By 2025 we will have a total of 26,000 construction sites, 5,000 more than last year. Next year there will probably be more than 28,000. This is a huge burden on the rail network,” Palla said.
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The reason for the large number of construction sites is the significant acceleration of system aging. “We have not reflected this in our estimates of the play.”
This applies to signal boxes, rails, switches and overhead lines. “And things are not going to get any better at the moment, we have to be honest. In 2026, the most important thing is to stabilize punctuality and stop the downward trend.”
