Overview
- The ZDF documentary aired in mid‑July 2026 and uses worker testimony and reporting to portray Deutsche Bahn as an organisation that shifts responsibility between the company and politics.
- An InfraGO investigation cited in the film says Deutsche Bahn knew about degraded concrete sleepers at the Burgrain site since 2010, with the June 3, 2022 derailment at Garmisch‑Partenkirchen causing five deaths and many injuries.
- The programme highlights that only about 2% of Germany’s network is fitted with the European Train Control System (ETCS) while Belgium completed its national ETCS rollout by the end of 2025 and now reports roughly 92% punctuality on main lines.
- A Gewerkschaft Deutscher Lokomotivführer internal survey shown in the film found 45.1% of staff never receive feedback after reporting defects and 34.6% rarely do, which staff say leaves safety‑critical information unacted on and prompts precautionary slowdowns.
- Critics in the film note contested investments such as plans to install roughly 700 conventional signals on the Berlin–Hamburg route at an estimated cost of €70 million as an example of spending that risks delaying digital modernisation and further eroding public confidence.