In long-distance traffic, 56.8 percent of trains were on time in August. The rate remained below 60 percent for the third month in a row,
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin The Federal Association of Consumers (VZBV) demands comprehensive quality controls for Deutsche Bahn. Clear quality and offer goals, sufficient financing and independent quality monitoring, with which customer satisfaction is also measured, are necessary, said the head of the mobility and travel team at VZBV, Marion Jungbluth, the Handelsblatt. “A central and independent body must now be commissioned with quality monitoring so that the funds are used efficiently and in line with requirements,” warned the VZBV expert.
Deutsche Bahn figures also show the need for action. Passengers did not have to wait for their trains in August as often as they have in years. In long-distance transport, punctuality was only 56.8 percent, as the group recently announced.
The rate remained below 60 percent for the third month in a row and at a level that passengers had last experienced in the snow chaos at the end of 2010. In regional transport, the punctuality rate remained below 90 percent in August.
Jungbluth said: “The mess that passengers have had to experience in the trains and on platforms in the past few months is not suitable for inspiring new passengers to travel by train.” The “decades-long undesirable development” must be stopped.
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In this context, Jungbluth is skeptical about the so-called rail summit, which the Federal Ministry of Transport is organizing for the fourth time this Thursday. It is true that Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) has declared the general renovation of the rails to be a top priority. “In the end, what counts is what people get,” said the VZBV expert. The minister should “not continue the summititis of his predecessor, which rarely led to groundbreaking solutions”.
“Nobody should be excluded from traveling by train because they don’t have a smartphone”
The punctuality dilemma has recently brought a rapid increase in complaints to the arbitration board for public transport (SÖP). In the first half of 2022, 2,500 applications for arbitration were received from travelers, which was around 50 percent more than in the corresponding period of the previous year (1,653 applications), the facility said at the request of the Handelsblatt. Most complaints concerned train delays and cancellations.
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As a consequence, politicians called for travelers to be automatically compensated in the future. Digitization must primarily benefit passengers, stressed consumer advocate Jungbluth. This does not only apply to compensation.
It’s about better service, more punctuality and reliable information, especially in the event of a fault. However, digitization must not lead to parts of society being excluded. In the worst case, this could mean that some people no longer wanted to use local public transport and the train.
“Nobody should be excluded from traveling by train because they don’t have or want a smartphone,” said Jungbluth. It must therefore also be possible to purchase tickets offline in the future.
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