Overview

• Lydia Hüskens called the situation in the regional network very critical and said reliability and quality are absolutely insufficient.
• More than 1,800 train trips were canceled from April to early September, with late August and early September exceeding 200 cancellations per week.
• Nahverkehrsgesellschaft Sachsen-Anhalt issued a contractual reprimand to Start on August 7 following sustained performance problems.
• The ministry blames both Start for personnel planning, unreliable replacement vehicles, and weak passenger information, and DB InfraGO for slow orders, line closures, and unstaffed signal boxes.
• Start has reactivated contracts with temporary staff for deployment from October, opened talks with DB Regio for additional personnel, and is working to stabilize its replacement fleet and improve passenger information.