DB long-distance transport: Rail punctuality falls to virtually 50 % in January – and to below 30 on sooner or later | EUROtoday

In January, solely 52.1 % of all Deutsche Bahn (DB) long-distance trains reached their vacation spot on time. This is reported by the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, citing inner knowledge accessible to it. According to the report, the railway confirmed the numbers upon request.

Punctuality dropped significantly within the days after winter storm “Elli”. On January tenth solely 41.3 % of the trains arrived on time, on January eleventh it was solely 40.3 %. On January twelfth, the curve reached its preliminary low level of 36.2 %. The solely time Deutsche Bahn’s long-distance trains had been much more unpunctual was on January twenty sixth: in keeping with the info, solely 28.3 % of the ICEs and ICs arrived on schedule. For the entire of 2026, the brand new railway boss Evelyn Palla is aiming for punctuality of 60 %.

“January was the snowiest in parts of Germany for more than 15 years,” a railway spokesman informed the newspaper. As a results of the storm “Elli”, 3,000 kilometers of rail community within the north had been quickly inaccessible; 5,000 staff had been on the route on daily basis, particularly to take away ice from frozen switches.

In October 2025, punctuality had beforehand reached a brand new historic low of 51.5 %. According to Deutsche Bahn’s standards for long-distance transport, trains which can be six minutes or extra late are thought-about unpunctual.