The DB was great (albeit a little bureaucratic), while it still was the Bundesbahn, a public institution, run by public servants like every other government office. But when they became the DB AG, a shares based for profit company (still held by 100% by the government), they became a shitshow, because now their mission of providing reliable public transportation changed to making maximum profit and paying their C-suite (typically former politicians or their buddies) ever increasing bonuses for doing fuck all or even less than that.
That’s the way many German public institutions went thanks to rampant privatisation caused by all mainstream parties adopting the neoliberal agenda. They are now a shadow of their former self, delivering sub par service for outrageous prices while making a few individuals very rich.
The CDU never invested in the necessary maintenance, so from 2022 to 2025, SPD, Grüne and FDP had to push through funding all the necessary repairs and modernizations at once, crippling the whole network for the next 10-20 years.
Part of it is beeing modernized while the rest now has a higher demand than what its capable of. Since the network is already very tightly packed, one small incident can cause a domino effect of trains beeing late throughout Germany.
As a foreigner, ICE was so great a decade ago when I went to Germany regularly. What happened to destroy this beacon of fine travel?
The long term effects of privatization and decades of car centric politics.
That sucks. I saw the DB as a model of envy.
The DB was great (albeit a little bureaucratic), while it still was the Bundesbahn, a public institution, run by public servants like every other government office. But when they became the DB AG, a shares based for profit company (still held by 100% by the government), they became a shitshow, because now their mission of providing reliable public transportation changed to making maximum profit and paying their C-suite (typically former politicians or their buddies) ever increasing bonuses for doing fuck all or even less than that.
That’s the way many German public institutions went thanks to rampant privatisation caused by all mainstream parties adopting the neoliberal agenda. They are now a shadow of their former self, delivering sub par service for outrageous prices while making a few individuals very rich.
Sad, but unsurprising, that right-wing grift is universal.
Sadly a thing of the past…
The CDU never invested in the necessary maintenance, so from 2022 to 2025, SPD, Grüne and FDP had to push through funding all the necessary repairs and modernizations at once, crippling the whole network for the next 10-20 years. Part of it is beeing modernized while the rest now has a higher demand than what its capable of. Since the network is already very tightly packed, one small incident can cause a domino effect of trains beeing late throughout Germany.