Berlin: Germany’s transport minister, Volker Wissing, has rebuked the national rail operator Deutsche Bahn for its shortcomings during the UEFA European Championship, following widespread complaints of travel disruptions by football fans.
In an interview published in Sunday newspaper Welt am Sonntag on Friday, Wissing stated, “What has happened to some of the fans does not meet Germany’s standards and does not meet the standards I have for our transport infrastructure.”
During this year’s tournament, which attracted millions across Germany, social media was flooded with grievances about extended travel delays and overcrowded trains at various match locations.
Wissing criticized Deutsche Bahn’s ambitious commitment to add 10,000 train seats daily, calling it impractical given the current state of the network. “Even if the intention behind it was certainly good, the network cannot cope with this additional capacity in its current state,” he remarked.
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He also pointed out challenges posed by adverse weather conditions, including heavy rains and summer storms that disrupted fan zones and even halted a Germany-Denmark match in Dortmund for 20 minutes. “The network is not designed for such extreme weather conditions because the drainage systems cannot absorb these volumes of water,” Wissing explained, noting renovations set to begin to address this issue.
Internationally, Germany’s efficiency was scrutinized during the Euro tournament amid ongoing struggles to modernize its aging rail infrastructure and improve punctuality.
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Deutsche Bahn, when approached for comment, did not respond immediately to inquiries. However, in its own assessment of the tournament’s transport operations, the company acknowledged a “mixed conclusion” regarding the punctuality of its long-distance trains. “The most was made out of the rail system, but the possibilities were limited by an antiquated and overwhelmed infrastructure,” Deutsche Bahn stated this week.
