The German railway operator "Deutsche Bahn" (Deutsche Bahn) announced that it will further improve the punctuality of its trains within the next six months, after in the first half of the year 62.7 percent of long-distance trains reached their final stop without significant delay, DPA reported, quoted from BTA.
Train delays were a major concern for fans during the European football championship in Germany, which ended less than two weeks ago. They even provoked comments that considering Germany as a modern and efficient country is clearly a myth.
"We expect a major improvement in train punctuality in the second half of the year," said the CEO of "Deutsche Bahn" Richard Lutz during the presentation of the company's report for the first half of the year.
The goal is for between 63 and 67 percent of long-distance trains to arrive on time by the end of the year.
In the first half of the year, only 52.9 percent of the trains of "Deutsche Bahn" they are not late, as the situation was particularly bad in June. The arrival of the train more than 6 minutes after the schedule is considered late.
The state-owned company pointed out in its report that rail transport in the first quarter suffered from employee strikes, poor infrastructure and an unexpectedly high number of bad weather conditions. "Taken together, all of this contributed to 7 percent of the delays," Lutz said.
The problems have reduced the number of people traveling by train in Germany in the first half of the year, admits Deutsche Bahn. For the January-June period, 64.2 million passengers were transported by long-distance train, or 6 percent less than the same period last year.
The company's delays and other problems have resulted in a total loss of 1.2 billion euros for the first half of the year. For the same period in 2023, the losses amounted to only 71 million euros, after deducting interest and taxes.
However, last year "Deutsche ban" has made serious infrastructure investments, which means that this year it expects a serious payment from the state.
According to Lutz, by the end of the year the company is even expected to turn an operating profit before interest and taxes.
The company plans to cut thousands of jobs, mostly in administration, after the reported losses.
"Our goal is to reduce our workforce by about 30,000 full-time jobs," said Chief Financial Officer Levin Holle.