Punctuality remains a construction site on the railways. In March, the values had again deviated significantly from the target they had set themselves. However, there should not be any relaxation until summer 2024.
Deutsche Bahn cannot maintain its punctuality values from the beginning of the year in long-distance traffic. In March, the ICE and IC trains only reached 68.4 percent of the stops on time, as the group announced on Thursday. This means that punctuality has deteriorated by almost five percentage points compared to January (73.2 percent). DB has set itself a target of well over 70 percent for 2023 as a whole – after 65.2 percent last year.
A train is considered punctual in the railway statistics as long as it does not arrive at a station with a delay of more than six minutes. Train cancellations or missed connecting trains are not taken into account.
The punctuality of the train is currently mainly affected by the ailing and overloaded infrastructure. “In March 2023, DB continued the extensive construction work throughout the rail network. Up to 1,000 construction sites per day affected long-distance traffic, especially in the second half of March,” said the group about the new punctuality values. From July 2024, DB intends to carry out general renovations on important routes so that it can then offer more and more reliable rail traffic.
In regional transport, punctuality in March was reported to be 92.6 percent. It remained constant compared to January (92.8 percent) and February (92.6 percent). Far more trains are used in regional traffic than in long-distance traffic.
Source: Stern
