A joint press conference by the German rail freight association Die Güterbahnen and passenger rail associations PRO BAHN and mofair has shed more light on the state of the German market. The situation is critical, with the market unanimously agreeing that operational quality has declined. Some companies have already left the market.
The three associations presented the results of a jointly conducted survey. Above all, the unanimous dissatisfaction with service quality stands out. 100% of respondents said that DB InfraGO’s service has become worse.
It is also clear that the German rail market is suffering from the chaos on the rail network. Illustratively, the Federal Chairman of the passenger association PRO BAHN, Lukas Iffländer, said that companies need to verify each morning if trains can even depart at their scheduled times that day.
Unsurprisingly, 80% of Die Güterbahnen’s survey respondents subsequently said that the network quality has become worse. All respondents agreed that the price-performance ratio of DB InfraGO is bad: 60% even said that it is very bad.
In terms of customer orientation, construction work communication and planability around construction works, the picture does not look much different. 47% say that customer orientation has worsened, while 67% say that DB InfraGO’s communication surrounding construction works has declined. An overwhelming majority of 87% say that the ability to plan around these works is either bad or very bad.
Rail freight insolvencies
Managing Director of Die Guterbahnen Neele Wesseln shared that small and medium-sized companies suffer in particular. A single-digit number of them has already left the market. In total, four members of the rail freight association have cited insolvency as the reason for terminating their membership, German publication DVZ reported later.
The German rail freight market is facing a number of impactful issues. For example, it faces high track access charges while not getting reliable infrastructure in return. Whereas companies have been able to book their slots for 2027 already since March, they do not yet know which price they will have to pay. The charges for next year are not known yet, which makes it impossible to plan reliably.
At the same time, the many infrastructure works are complicating rail operations. An infamous example is the closure of the Hamburg–Berlin railway, a key artery for freight traffic. It was closed for many consecutive months. Some alternative routes were closed simultaneously, severely limiting capacity.