High contractual penalties: the railway has to pay due to delays of nearly 500 million euros

In a few days, the Deutsche Bahn will publish their on time statistics for December. Even if the company shows the movement of trains over the Christmas and new year’s eve will no longer be able to improve the last month of the bad year of the balance sheet. In the months from January to November, three-quarters of all long-distance trains did not even reach on time at your destination. 25.2 percent of the ICE and IC were at least six minutes “on schedule”. Delays of more than an hour were not uncommon.

Kerstin Schwenn

business correspondent in Berlin.

F. A. Z.

Therefore, the amount of compensation owed by the Railway company to disappointed passengers could climb, 2018, a record high two-digit million amount. In the year before more than a Million passengers from the train had asked for the money back.

penalties

In the regional traffic of the Deutsche Bahn is usually on-time on-the-go. Although the trains of the DB Regio schwächelten in October and November, with only a little over 92 per cent punctuality. But, on average, at least 94 percent of the regional trains headed to the track statistics to 2018, just in time. Cancellations will not be counted.

Even so, the consequences of the lack of Punctuality in regional traffic are expensive: The Deutsche Bahn AG has to pay because of the many delays and failures for the years 2017 and 2018, almost half a billion euros in penalties. This number was confirmed on Wednesday in Berlin in the Supervisory Board circles. The penalties are enshrined in the contracts with the customers in the countries that invite tenders for the regional transport, to order, and with the help of a multibillion-dollar support from the Federal government to pay.

“Agenda for a better car”

The causes of cancellations and delays are many and varied. The railway itself to justify increasingly with problems with the “availability” of trains, but also with the lack of staff. Very often, the causes of the disorders lie in the infrastructure. Acute defective tracks or Soft, as well as construction sites are responsible for it.

In his “Agenda for a better railway,” the railway Board measures to improve the punctuality values noticeably – to satisfy customers, but also to the Supervisory Board and the owner, the Confederation, to appease. This includes the recruitment of new employees in the workshops to the maintenance of the trains. Under the assumption that the measures are having an effect, attributed to the Board of Directors of 2019 to 2023, then “only” with the penalties on the purchaser of regional trains out of a total of 650 million euros.