The railway’s ICE 4 fleet is complete – the last train has been delivered and christened. However, the railway will probably not be able to get the tardiness under control. And the tariff dispute with the GDL is still unresolved.
Deutsche Bahn’s ICE 4 fleet is complete – the last of the 137 trains ordered from Siemens Mobility was recently delivered. Railway boss Richard Lutz and Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing named it “Spree” today. “It marks the completion of the largest program to date to modernize Deutsche Bahn’s vehicle fleet,” said the FDP politician at the event at Berlin Central Station.
Railway boss Lutz called the train the “backbone of long-distance transport” at the federally owned company. No other ICE series currently has as many vehicles as the fourth generation of the high-speed train, which, with a speed of up to 265 kilometers per hour, is not the fastest variant.
Punctuality worsened
With the delivery of the last ICE 4 ordered, the number of ICE trains at Deutsche Bahn has increased from around 270 back then to more than 400 today. By 2030, this number is expected to increase to more than 450 vehicles. The average age of long-distance trains is expected to fall over the same period, from the current 18 to 12 years.
But the ramp-up of vehicles has not changed the basic problem of the railway, the high level of unpunctuality. On the contrary: since the ICE 4 went into operation in 2017, punctuality in long-distance transport has deteriorated significantly. However, this is not because of the trains.
Infrastructure disruptions
The reason for the numerous delays is more likely to be disruptions to the infrastructure, according to passenger association boss Detlef Neuß. They were responsible for 80 percent of delays last year. It is clear that modern trains also need a modern and efficient rail network – and that this does not exist at the moment, said Transport Minister Wissing. The systems are outdated because too few funds have been made available for maintenance in recent years.
The federal and state governments want to address this problem in the coming years: As part of a general renovation, 40 busy route corridors are to be fundamentally modernized by 2030. It starts in July on the so-called Riedbahn between Frankfurt and Mannheim. This will be followed next year by the Emmerich-Oberhausen route, which is important for freight railways, and the Berlin-Hamburg corridor. The affected sections of the route will be completely closed for the duration of the renovation.
Strike-free Easter holidays?
On the sidelines of the event at Berlin Central Station, the Federal Transport Minister also commented on the current wage dispute between the railway and the German Locomotive Drivers’ Union (GDL). He hopes for a solution to the collective bargaining dispute before Easter. “That would really be appropriate now,” said the minister. Otherwise, he would push for a so-called Easter peace without strikes over the holidays. Both sides are currently negotiating behind closed doors again. So far nothing has been known about the status of the negotiations.
The crux of the conflict is the GDL’s demand for a 35-hour week for shift workers with the same wages. To date, the standard working hours for these employees have been 38 hours per week. Although they can reduce their working hours as part of a choice model, they have to accept financial losses in return. There have so far been six industrial disputes in the collective bargaining dispute at the railway, which have led to significant restrictions on long-distance, regional and freight transport.