Deutsche Bahn, the German national rail operator, has come under sharp criticism over worsening on-time rates—and it’s blaming passengers for holding up departures.
And it has a plan: Up to now, train doors have locked 10 seconds before departure, but the Bahn has now begun locking at 30 seconds, forcing passengers to be on board a bit earlier. The new schedule has been in effect on all long-distance trains since mid-October, but no results are in on whether it’s working.
Also unknown: how much schedules may need to be re-arranged to allow connections. On personal experience, there’s sometimes very little time to get off one train, up or down to another platform and aboard.
Germany has Europe’s fastest trains, by most measures, but punctuality has begun to look like that of building Berlin’s airport or Hamburg’s concert hall: More than 20% of the ICE express trains arrived late so far this year, and last year nearly a third of all trains were more than 5 minutes behind schedule.
