At Easter, Transport Minister Wissing spreads hope: the railway’s long-distance trains would be more punctual – at Christmas time. He draws his optimism from the railway’s construction site timetable.
Anyone who traveled by train over Easter at least didn’t have to worry about a train driver’s strike. Only the notorious delays, which had become almost routine, had to be factored into the travel planning. But this should get better, says Transport Minister Volker Wissing. The FDP politician expects long-distance trains to be more punctual at Christmas time.
Renovation of the Riedbahn
Wissing’s hope is based on the railway’s construction site timetable. He is convinced that as soon as the first corridor, the Riedbahn between Frankfurt am Main and Mannheim, is renovated, rail customers will notice improvements. This will be the case for the coming Christmas traffic, the minister told the newspapers of the Funke media group.
Closure of the Deutsche Bahn “Riedbahn” routes and bypass routes
At the end of the year it will be “better”
The Riedbahn between Frankfurt am Main and Mannheim is currently responsible for “a lot” of train delays. “Every seventh long-distance train passes this route. Due to the poor condition, there is at least one operational disruption every day,” said the FDP politician. At the end of the year the situation will be “better”. Once the Riedbahn is renovated, “there should at least be no more network-related operational disruptions there. And that in turn has a positive impact on the entire network.”
The Riedbahn is the first section of the route that the railway is tackling as part of the so-called general renovation. According to Wissing, a total of around 16.3 billion euros will flow into rail this year, primarily into the renovation of sections of the route.
By 2030, the railway wants to make the rail network fit with general renovations on 40 heavily used routes. The concept calls for the respective routes to be completely closed for several months and fundamentally repaired. The work on the Riedbahn between Frankfurt and Mannheim is just the beginning.
Temporary route closures in the Deutsche Bahn network due to construction work in 2024
Long-distance target for long-distance trains: 80 percent on time
For the current year, the railway recently set itself the goal of a punctuality rate of 70 percent in long-distance transport. Last year it was 64 percent. A train is considered to be on time if it is less than six minutes late. According to a joint strategy by the railways and the Federal Ministry of Transport, around 80 percent of long-distance trains should be on time by 2030, for example ICE and intercity trains.