Referreport
This does not happen every day: The federal government, in the person of Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing, is counting on its own company as the owner, the Deutsche Bahn“Punctuality is in a bad state, reliability is not satisfactory. That is why I am demanding an immediate restructuring plan from Deutsche Bahn,” the liberal minister put a lot of pressure on the railway management.
Wissing criticizes Deutsche Bahn management – but not the boss
At a press conference on Tuesday afternoon at the Ministry of Transport in Berlin, Wissing also took the Deutsche Bahn board directly to task: “I also demand a streamlining of management.” Whether this also put Richard Lutz, CEO of Deutsche Bahn, directly in Wissing’s focus remains unclear.
“We will agree on concrete goals and support the achievement of these goals with close monitoring. I therefore assume that successful work will then be possible,” said the minister in response to a question about Lutz’s personnel.
Regarding the question of whether the Deutsche Bahn supervisory board had failed due to the dilapidated state of the company, Wissing stressed that he did not want to shift the responsibility onto others. He, Wissing, also sees the federal government as the owner as being responsible.
Sale of DB Schenker could bring in 14 billion
However, the Transport Minister also sent a warning to the railway management: “The federal government has now made advance payments with gigantic and historic increases in investment. Failure in the urgently needed restructuring of the company is no longer an option.”
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One thing is currently undisputed: Deutsche Bahn is facing a massive corporate restructuring with much tougher cuts than previously planned. The reduction of around 30,000 administrative jobs announced by the company over five years will probably not be enough to achieve the restructuring.
Background: High losses amounting to billions are being recorded in local and long-distance transport as well as in network operations. The freight subsidiary DB Cargo is in a permanent crisis. In order to get some financial breathing room, the railway wants to sell its international logistics subsidiary Schenker. If this succeeds, around 14 billion euros could flow into the railway’s coffers. Schenker, however, is the only significant source of profit for the state-owned company.
This will make the railway more punctual and reliable
In this context, Wissing pointed out that when the current federal government took office in late autumn 2021, it found Deutsche Bahn in a “difficult state and with a desolate infrastructure”. A concept for the renovation of particularly busy routes by 2030 had therefore been drawn up.
The renovation of the first route, the Riedbahn between Frankfurt and Mannheim, began in mid-July this year. It was completely closed until mid-December. This will be followed by further renovations of particularly busy high-performance corridors.
The Federal Transport Minister wants his own company to finally continuously improve its punctuality and reliability. “I expect top positions in these areas in international comparison. In order to achieve these top positions, the railway would have to increase staff productivity, increase cost efficiency, expand digitalization and be better prepared for extreme weather conditions,” said the FDP politician.
Railway management collects bonuses despite losses
It cannot and should not be the case that – as was the case recently at the European Football Championship – the train is suddenly no longer on time when there is heavy rain. Wissing’s demand: “The train must arrive – regardless of whether it is cold, hot or rainy. The train now has the chance to show what it can do.”
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As a reminder, in July only 62 percent of trains reached their destination on time. However, the transport minister did not want to say directly what punctuality rate he had in mind. He said he expected improvements to be made by the end of this year.
The minister also did not want to comment directly on the fact that the railway’s management was receiving hefty bonus payments despite being unpunctual and unreliable and despite billions in losses. Wissing only revealed this much: “I assume that the supervisory board designed the contracts with those responsible on the railway’s board of directors in such a way that bonuses would only be paid if the agreed targets had been achieved.”
The ministry’s list of demands also states that the railway must make better use of its long-distance trains in order to return to economic and sustainable operations. Whether this is done through “attractive prices” for trains with low occupancy or by acquiring new business customers is the responsibility of the railway board. In this context, Wissing spoke out against the closure of routes.
Source: German