Germany's rail operator Deutsche Bahn's (DB) issues with punctuality have persisted through 2024, according to data published by the company on Friday.

In its latest statistics, just 62.5% of DB ICE and IC long-distance trains made it within 6 minutes of the arrival time last year.

The figure is slightly worse than that of 2023 when 64% of long-distance trains arrived on time.

Why the delays?

DB listed a number of reasons as to why punctuality in German rail transport had continued to decline since 2021.

The rail operator said "outdated and overloaded infrastructure” led to a large amount of disruptions while a large number of construction activities destabilized schedules.

DB said that there was also a growth in traffic in major transport hubs that placed strain on infrastructure.

The "tight labor market” was also cited among the reasons for delays which DB said had made it difficult to meet personnel requirements.

DB said that extreme weather events had not helped matters, with flooding in southern Germany in June 2024 causing substantial damage to infrastructure.

DB says it has drawn up 'punctuality action plan'

The company said it had drawn up a "punctuality action plan” in an effort to improve.

"At the heart of the action plan are the increase in the on-time start of the train run, the removal of exceptional speed limits on line sections, the increase in the technical availability of the vehicle fleet and the stabilization in the major transport hubs,” DB said in its interim report.

The punctuality figures for Germany's regional trains told a different story. In 2024, 90.3% of regional passenger trains arrived within six minutes of the scheduled time, a slight drop from the 91.0% mark in 2023.

In 2020, 95.6% of stops in regional transport and 81.8% in long-distance transport were reached on time.

This article made use of material provided by German news agency dpa

Edited by: Wesley Dockery