IT’S COME TO THIS: Why German intercity trains are even worse than Britain’s.

Germany’s crumbling rail services are less punctual than even the worst operator in Britain, analysis shows, after the country’s leader mocked the state of UK railways.

Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, dismissed suggestions last week that the country’s network should be privatised arguing that it would “end as badly as in England, where nothing works any more”.
However, data shows that Deutsche Bahn, the German state-owned rail group, is consistently delivering one of the least reliable services in central Europe — even compared with Britain.
The rail network in Germany was once celebrated as sleek, efficient and reliable but has deteriorated dramatically in recent decades, blighted by unreliability, chronic delays and cancellations.

The situation has become so bad that officials in Switzerland — celebrated for its to-the-second rail punctuality — have banned some late-running intercity trains from its network as they mess with the precise, synchronised timetable and disrupt local services.
Analysis showed that only 72 per cent of Deutsche Bahn’s intercity trains arrived within ten minutes of their scheduled arrival time in the 12 months to January, compared with 78 per cent of British long-distance services.

Clearly, there’s only man who salvage the situation — and fortunately, at the moment, he’s got quite a bit of free time on his hands!