That’s a huge compliment for the DB. The fact that they can run the bare minimum services at all between cities within reasonable time frames genuinely amazes me.
For anybody wondering, why DB being able to meet minimum service is so incredible, it is rather simple. Both passenger and freight demand in Germany have grown over the last decades. However the government did rarely invest in new track or even repairs of old railway infrastructure. Basically Germany needs a high speed rail network parallel to the exisiting slower lines to meet demand, as well as some additional freight lines. Without that DB has no chance in hell to actually be a good rail provider.
So the fact that they can somewhat meet demand is an incredible achievement by DB.
The regional service sucks to a large part due to a lack of capacity on German main lines. Regional trains and freight trains run at about the same speed, which is great for capacity. However high speed trains are faster and therefore need to overtake them. You need to plan for that, which require additional capacity. In other words, when you take ICE trains of the old main lines, you massivly improve regional rail as well.
That’s a huge compliment for the DB. The fact that they can run the bare minimum services at all between cities within reasonable time frames genuinely amazes me.
For anybody wondering, why DB being able to meet minimum service is so incredible, it is rather simple. Both passenger and freight demand in Germany have grown over the last decades. However the government did rarely invest in new track or even repairs of old railway infrastructure. Basically Germany needs a high speed rail network parallel to the exisiting slower lines to meet demand, as well as some additional freight lines. Without that DB has no chance in hell to actually be a good rail provider.
So the fact that they can somewhat meet demand is an incredible achievement by DB.
I mean I was just ragging on their absolute gobshite regional services, but yeah fair point
The regional service sucks to a large part due to a lack of capacity on German main lines. Regional trains and freight trains run at about the same speed, which is great for capacity. However high speed trains are faster and therefore need to overtake them. You need to plan for that, which require additional capacity. In other words, when you take ICE trains of the old main lines, you massivly improve regional rail as well.