Overview

• Only 62% of ICE and IC long-distance trains arrived on time in May, missing Deutsche Bahn’s 65–70% punctuality goal for 2025.
• Passenger punctuality stood at 68% for May, roughly unchanged from the same month a year earlier.
• Deutsche Bahn leadership blames an aging, overcrowded infrastructure with high disturbance rates for the worsening delays.
• The company intends to defer some scheduled maintenance work on roughly 40 heavily used corridors to free up capacity for day-to-day operations.
• Germany’s federal audit office warned that the S3 renovation program lacks solid budgetary foundations and pointed to cost overruns and methodological flaws in the Riedbahn overhaul.