Yeah, the Deutsche Bahn was half privatized and because they had to chase profits, the Deutsche Bahn AG started investing in DB Schenker (a logistics outfit) along with many-a foreign companies, instead of maintaining and building more railways, as well as buying new wagons.

Now we have the fucked up situation where the Deutsche Bahn manages the railway, so other train companies (Thalys, Flixtrain, TGV, etc) have to rent the (publically financed) rails, while being treated like stepchildren in such situations when a Deutsche Bahn trains (that are not well maintained) needs a platform for longer than planned because of some emergency (but there’s an emergency every day). And it’s not like these trains could use other routes, because the routes aren’t maintained. The Deutsche Bahn is practically a monopoly as a company, while enjoying state funding. The last slap in the face was when the Swiss state train company (SBB) bans German trains from entering Switzerland, because they always cause delays on the Swiss side. Trivia: a train counts as late after a 3-minute delay in Switzerland, 6-minute in Germany. SO HOW EMBARASSING IS THIS?? The Swiss told us that we’re too friggin unpünktlicht!!

The Deutsche Bahn now (with some political pressure, but not too much) announced they’re going to build more routes and buy more trains, and all in all, WE WILL FINALLY BE ON TIME… in 2070. 2070!!! I’m not going to still be working in 2070!

This turned into a rant, sorry. TL;DR, the Deutsche Bahn is in a sad, sad state.