On Tuesday, everything at Deutsche Bahn suddenly came to a halt when a malfunction occurred during scheduled maintenance of the outdated GSM-R railway radio system.
All train services were stopped, and thousands of passengers were left stranded overnight because control centers and train drivers could no longer communicate with one another.
The extreme summer heat has brought even more trouble. With temperatures at times exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), tracks and switches become highly prone to faults. In recent years, air-conditioning systems on trains have also frequently failed.
As a precaution, Deutsche Bahn is already offering customers the option to cancel tickets for travel up to June 30 free of charge. This has never happened before. Yet the current problems are only the tip of the iceberg.
Deutsche Bahn: Reliable no more?To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
