Delays, often several hours long, missed connections, train cancellations and dirty stations. Broken tracks and signal boxes, leading to endless track work. Poor service on trains, dirty toilets. Deutsche Bahn has been in crisis for a long time.
Now, everything is supposed to get better — with a new boss, a realistic schedule and a focus on passengers' expectations that trains run comfortably and reliably from A to B as scheduled.
On Monday in Berlin, Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder introduced his choice for Deutsche Bahn's new CEO, Evelyn Palla, and presented his plan to improve Germany's railway.
"Today, we are taking up the baton for a new era. An era in which we will once again focus on what we do best: running trains, the railway as the lifeline of this country," Palla, a 51-year-old Austrian national, told the press. She is to replace railway boss Richard Lutz, who has been at the helm of the state-owned company since 2017.
'Many people equate the dysfunctionality of the railways with the dysfunctionality of our state,' warned Transport Minister Patrick SchniederImage: Fabian Sommer/dpa/picture-alliance
