German Trains- are they as bad as I'm hearing?

We were in Germany earlier this month. Took 2 regional trains and one ICE. All three were delayed. ICE was only delayed by about 10 minutes. One regional never showed up so we had to hop on another train--I'm not even sure what it was. We were with a tour, and our tour guide just told us to get on a different train, so we did. Just sharing our experience.

On my two most recent trips, one in February and other last October, I had no issues with the longer trips, such as Vienna to Munich. I has one regional train issue that did add almost 2 hours to a planned 3 hour day and a few delays of 15-30 minutes max. Both trips were around 3 weeks and had lots of train trips.

In 2023, 64 percent of German trains arrived at their destinations on time. That means about 1/3 were late.
The reasons are varied but it seems to be that there’s so many more trains today traveling over a limited number of rail lines that have not kept up with the increased train traffic. When there’s a problem on the tracks ahead—be it a stalled locomotive or a herd of geese on the tracks— delays multiply throughout the rail system. Deutsche Bahn says that 90 percent of trains arrive at their destination on time or within five minutes of their scheduled arrival time.

Ok thank you. It sounds like the major city to city trains aren't an issue- which is what I'm more interested in.
10 minutes isn't too big of a deal...

If you plan on being delayed, you won’t be disappointed if it happens. If you’re on time, yay! If you’re just traveling from one city to another, a slight delay is no big deal. If a delay causes you to miss your connection, you will receive a message in the app that you can use any train to get to your destination.

I wouldn’t plan on traveling a great distance by train to get to you airport for a return flight with a plan B.

Agree with @Travel4Fun: I wouldn’t plan on traveling a great distance
by train to get to you airport for a return flight with a plan B.

I don't like to take the train, the local metro or even a taxi. Most of the time I pay a little more for my last night to stay at the airport and walk to my plane.

We were delayed by more than an hour and a half traveling from Amsterdam to Berlin on a Deutsche Bahn train. Our compartment mates said that such delays are common. There's some suspicion that Russian-backed sabotage may play a part in increasing delays right now. Add to that the seedy condition of even first-class carriages and you have an unpleasant situation.

Bottom line: German trains are probably the worst in western Europe right now.

I use my Germany pass on the regionals 2-3 times a month. It is a rare day (or weekend) when every train is on time. going to Wurzburg a couple weeks ago it took almost 2 hours longer than planned. Coming back there was only one delay, for 10 minutes. But that caused me to miss the transfer by 3 minutes and left me stranded in a very small town with nothing open on a Sunday until the next train came an hour later.

I've been stranded twice by crew shortages, and watched as trains were cancelled because the previous run was delayed almost back to the start of the next one. It is extremely frustrating.

Right now I would expect any train moving through Mannheim to be delayed due to track work. And never, ever, take the last train of the day, because if that gets cancelled you may be stuck waiting until the next morning.

I catch a lot of flak from folks on this board for flying any distance more than 4 hours away, if possible. Like from Frankfurt to Berlin. But flights inside the EU are just as cheap as the train, much faster, and on time. And boarding on local flights is much less complicated than international ones.

We lived in Germany from 87-91 and took the trains in Europe a lot.
The German trains were the best. If a train was a minute late, that was unusual. Never had one cancelled back then.

We were in Bavaria last month and took regional trains because we used a Bayern pass. The trains were very crowded, we were unable to sit much at all. We had two trains cancelled and almost missed our meeting for the start of a River Cruise.

The trains that we were on were clean. They were close to being on time, but not like the trains years ago.

My wife and I have been in the Netherlands and Germany since mid-July. Right now we are in Munich and have done a very short trip to Dachau with no train issues. The main station has some construction going on.

Our trip from Amsterdam to Cologne and our travels up and down the Rhine were problematic. The train to Cologne left a half hour late and only made it to Dusseldorf. The plus side though was that the announcements were clear and provided updated connection info. The trains to Bingen and Braubach were always late and always crowded. Standing up with luggage (Sorry Rick, just a carry on didn't work for us - we tried) was not fun. RB26 has now become a metaphor for my wife and I for disappointing service.
I am glad we planned extra connection time for our travels instead of relying on DB to be able to meet it's schedule. Not to sound too American, it was nice to get an iced coffee (German iced coffee is with ice cream) from Starbucks between trains, split a leberkase sandwich, etc.

On a recent regional train from Gießen (Germany) to Frankfurt, there was the matter of a copious amount of a suspicious dark liquid running out of one of the WCs.

In the world of waiting and delays, it is almost inconceivable that anyone would worry about a 10 minute late train when it is the norm to have much longer delays in the world of airlines. Do we excuse airlines? Yes, we do. We expect it. And if the delay were to be 10 minutes we would think that was fantastic.
Perspective.

1) Their own statistics show that this June Deutsche Bahn had the worst punctuality values for long-distance connections.

DeepL translation of their statement:

"52.9% of long-distance trains reached their destination on time in June [means within + 6 mins]. Passenger punctuality [means +15 mins at final destination of passengers] was 55.3 percent. The extreme weather events caused flood damage in several regions of Germany and led to the highest number of weather-related delays in long-distance transport ever recorded in June. With an average of over 400 trains per day, more than twice as many long-distance trains were affected by external influences such as landslides, flooding and dam damage than usual. This figure was even 33 percent higher than the previous peak months during the flood disaster in summer 2021.

The punctuality rate for the first half of 2024 is 62.7 percent. The massive strikes, the nationwide construction activity and, in particular, the extreme weather events in the first half of the year on an unprecedented scale have pushed the figure down. It is therefore becoming apparent that the annual punctuality rate - despite expected improvements in the second half of the year - will be significantly below the previous target of 70%."

2) Lower capacity due to constructions: between Aug 2 and Dec 14 the ICE connection Berlin – Halle (Saale) – Erfurt – Frankfurt is planned out of operations (source).

So, be prepared for filled-up trains and may be delays, especially at chosen travel time (Berlin Marathon).

Around Munich no major construction sites are planned (source) but unplanned failures and delays can happen.

It's not all doom and gloom when it comes to on-time performance, especially for those traveling on the Deutschland-Ticket or on regional day tickets (like the Bayern Ticket.) The REGIONAL trains that are used with these tickets have always had - and still have - a better performance record. DB's records from that same report referred to by MarkK above show that in 12 of the past 16 months, 90% - 93% of them, depending on the month, met the "on-time" criteria, meaning they arrived at their destinations less than 6 minutes later than their scheduled arrival time. The other 4 months came in very close to 90%: 89.1%, 89.2%, 89.4%, and 85.5%.

That's no guarantee of course. Trains on some routes show worse results. And it has nothing to do with overcrowded travel conditions, or poorly maintained bathrooms.

No matter the train type, itineraries which minimize changes of train are always best if you hope to arrive on time or close to it. If you're on a train that is delayed 15 minutes, and you miss a connection because of that delay, then waiting for the next train to come along could mean you will be delayed an hour or longer.

The website for the German national railway system has information about the current major construction - and computerized systems - for a number of routes that will be taking place now through September or trhough November. They have a map that shows the routes with the expected dates to be involved. It appears the greatest numbers of trains affected will be around Frankfurt and Berlin - but not Munich. I strongly recommend you look at that information. I, personally, have changed the itinerary for my upcoming trip due to the issues mentioned on the official website.

In the world of waiting and delays, it is almost inconceivable that anyone would worry about a 10 minute late train when it is the norm to have much longer delays in the world of airlines. Do we excuse airlines? Yes, we do. We expect it. And if the delay were to be 10 minutes we would think that was fantastic.
Perspective.

Here's my perspective: I have missed flights because airplanes arrived late. In those cases, I demand renumeration from the airlines, which they are required to provide by law. And rarely am I left standing in a place with no services, food, or lodging. With trains there is no recourse, there are services only at the major stations nowadays, and a delay of 10 minutes can mean the difference between a 3 hour trip and a 5 hour one. And that's if you're not stranded at 10pm 40 miles from your destination with no other means of transport.

I guess I was lucky - did RB FRA- Boppard on July 1, Koblenz- Heidelberg ICE on July 5 and Heidelberg-FRA ICE on July 8 all with no problems or delays. Ticketed everything on the DB app and the DB agent on the trains just scanned my I-phone ticket.

As always, thank you Russ for the great advice and tips you post!

90% - 93% of them, depending on the month, met the "on-time" criteria, meaning they arrived at their destinations less than 6 minutes later than their scheduled arrival time.

I just want to mention that the posted statistics do not contain fully cancelled trains which is more often the case on regional connections than on long-distance connections.

Usually, a fully-cancelled REGIONAL train has pretty much the same effect on punctuality as a regional train that is late enough to force a missed connection... you miss the connecting train, then wait around for the next one to come along, and you end up on a more crowded train and are delayed an hour or thereabouts in the end.

The BIGGER problem with regional trains (or high-speed trains for that matter) comes when an entire section of track suddenly gets shut down. With a planned shutdown for repairs/construction, DB arranges replacement buses (which make for longer-than-normal journeys, of course) or re-routings are also a possibility. But you can really get stranded if a signal or a switch goes down and that section of track becomes unusable for hours (or days.) It is simply not possible to have replacement buses deployed at a moment's notice in most circumstances. And if/when one is deployed in such an emergency, the average rail passenger won't always be informed on where to catch it. The only good thing in such situations is that you are in Germany, which means that station personnel and most of your fellow German passengers speak some English and can pass on some ideas for continuing your journey in some alternative way.

In my view based on this trip of 11 weeks and that of last summer, I would say , a definite yes., and it is not merely an issue of punctuality.

You could run into other unpleasant , unexpected encounters taking DB. Oftentimes at breakfast, my hotel has the news on. In this case it was n-tv. Watching it when DB was the topic and the specific words n-tv used to describe the problems confronting DB leads me to conclude the problems are not going away soon, or ever, especially if you were used to efficient German rail travel in the '70s and '80s.

This trip and that of last summer I had the same train experience on a regional train, last summer on the way to Ingolstadt everyone had to get off, a malfunction causing the train not to works in the manner it is supposed to. This summer on the way Magdeburg the same experience.

My husband and I just arrived back from Germany. We used trains for all of our travel between Munich, Füssen, Augsburg, Nuremberg, and Munich (again). Except for Füssen, we took day trips by train from each city. Having read about the DB issues, we only planned direct train journeys. We didn't want to get stuck in a station due to a missed connection, especially on the days when we had our luggage with us.

On many days, we were cursing DB. I could count the number of trains that arrived on time on one hand. The worst part was the regional train cancellations. We had Deutschland Tickets. A few weeks prior to our flight to Germany, I checked the train schedules for the specific days we would be traveling between base cities. There were multiple direct options on regional trains. The night before our train journey between Augsburg and Nuremberg, I checked the DB app, and there were no trains listed. I had to dig on the DB site to find why these journeys disappeared. There were major construction works on the lines. Not wanting to navigate multiple buses and trains, we had to buy tickets on an ICE train. This happened to us again on our journey from Nuremberg to Munich. It was very annoying having to pay extra for these high speed trains at the last minute. (Even worse, one of the trains was over 40 minutes late. It was like salt rubbed in a wound.)

I love traveling in Europe and have used the rail systems in at least a dozen different countries there. I've experienced strikes, delays, and cancellations. Without a doubt, this most recent trip to Germany was the most frustrating of them all.

I don't use the DB app, better and more useful is to look at the electronic boards and listen to the announcements but a lot of those are only in German especially the Regional Bahn trains.

This trip as was that of last summer, I had the same experience: every one was told to get off the train, this time in contrast to the event of last summer, those announcements pertaining to getting off the train were made only in German.

The bright spot in this DB situation is that I did not have a train departure cancel out on me this summer as was the case last summer
dep Mannheim to Paris.

I've now traveled this summer on trains in England, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Poland. Polish trains are excellent, though we had a 60-minute delay caused yesterday by a disruptive passenger (seated immediately behind me). They're probably my favorite overall. Swedish trains also were excellent.

German trains clearly have been the worst, from perspectives of both schedule and cleanliness/upkeep of carriages.

I would say too the German trains from the early 1970s to the early 1990s were the best. Having made 7 trips to Germany by 1992, riding the trains then were pleasurable, comfortable, and reliable. As always I used a rail pass.

Interesting too is how this situation is covered in the German news, such as n-tv, the exact words used as to connotation explaining the way DB finds itself in the current situation.

Bottom line: if you take DB, factor in glitches and cancellations not only for the particular departure time but for the entire route as well as delays

Like many others, I was shocked at the delays I experienced on DB trains this summer. When I first rode them in the 1980s, they were ALWAYS on time and dependable. I rode an ICE train from Berlin to Vienna a few months ago. It was 20 minutes late leaving the Berlin station and 40 minutes late by the time we arrived in Vienna. Be prepared for major delays and don't be surprised if you miss a tight connection.

We traveled by regional train and S Bahn in Bavaria for 11 days in August. None were on time, most were 5-10 minutes late but occasionally we’d see some on the electronic signs in the stations that would say 20 or 40 minutes late. Our most nerve wracking experiences, it happened 3x, were when we tried to take the S bahn from Herrsching into Munich or, heaven forbid, all the way to the airport for our flight home. All three times we were just let off at a station 2 stops from Herrsching to wait for another train if and when it showed up. The last morning we got on our S Bahn to go to the airport only to see a sign on the electronic monitors that said technical issue and the train just sat there. Eventually it was “fixed” and started moving. When it continued on past the station where people had been put off the train earlier in the week people clapped. Not the DB of old.

Two experiences...

We spent two months in Europe, mostly in Germany. I was officiating (American) football for Europe's top league. Most of the teams and half the officials are German. As we were prepping details for an upcoming game, one of the (German) guys was asked how he'd get the the game site from another town. He said he'd take the train, that one was schedule for 11:30 departure, so he wouldn't have to leave his house until Noon to catch the train!

Trains were seldom on time, and some never finished their suggested routes.

The other odd story.

My wife and I were training from Dusseldorf to Berlin on Monday after a game. We had seats in a quiet car. We were the only people to start the trip in that section. At the next stop, a woman got on, and sat directly across from us on a four-seater configuration. As she opened her laptop, she said, "I am warning you now (as she pointed to the quiet car sign). This is a quiet car. I must work for the next four hours. I will be very militant if you make any noise." My wife and I looked at each other in stunned silence. Then I said to the woman. "That's very harsh. We also bought tickets in the quiet car. I expect you not to make any noise either."

The silence was deafening, as they say. After a few moments, the woman closed her laptop and apologized, saying, "In my country this was asking nicely. Clearly in your country it was not. I apologize." I accepted her apology.

About ten minutes later, the woman moved -- not because of us, but there was a woman with young kids on the other side of the automatic door, and their active nature kept the automatic door opening and closing...

It was the reverse of the Ugly American Syndrome ...

It seems the woman had a change of heart, presumably the work she needed to do on the computer was now behind her as well as any pressure attached to it. She decided to apologize, fair enough. That she did not have to do. I've never come close to such an experience on German trains. In the Quite Zone the silence had better been deafening, that's why one chooses to sit there.

I've seen on rare occasions a person, the one example I recall was a young woman talking away on her phone, oblivious she was in the Quiet Zone , only to be told politely, as far I could tell, that she was in the Quite Zone.

Yes!!!
In Germany now.
RB trains: Saar Mosel river area. (1) RB 81 cancelled (found out at the train station, no notice) 23Sept am; (1) RB nn delayed and missed ICE connection in Koblenz (wait was 1 hour for next train to Frankfurt) 24Sept am.
Friends : ICE Koblenz to Frankfurt delayed 45 minutes 24 Sept 11 am.

RB26 has now become a metaphor for my wife and I for disappointing service.

That's accurate for our recent RB26 experiences, too. We rode it 4 times, had delays twice, had to stand on two of the journeys, and I got punched in the arm by a drunk guy.

I got punched in the arm by a drunk guy

you can't really blame DB for that one...

We were in Germany in April and had both of our long rides (Frankfurt to Freiburg and Freiburg to Berlin) canceled. While it was easy enough to take an alternate train, it was confusing for us to figure out how our assigned, reserved seats would transfer. We found ourselves seat hopping quite a bit as passengers boarded and disembarked. It’s pretty shocking to me that somehow the Italians have surpassed the Germans in organization and reliability when it comes to transportation.

I got punched in the arm by a drunk guy

you can't really blame DB for that one...

Maybe, maybe not. They didn't check tickets when we were on the RB26 so I wonder if the disheveled man swaying down the aisles with a bottle of beer even had a ticket. It appeared he got on at one stop, staggered through all the cars (stopping to punch me in the arm along the way as I sat in my seat) and exited at a nearby stop. I thought it was funny, but unexpected, and riding that line as a whole isn't something we need to experience again.

With my experiences over the last month, I could usually live with the delays, but it really would be nice if they put more covered seating on the platforms, or even in the station. Bad enough to see your train go from 5 minutes, to 10, to 15 minutes late and have to stand there.

It’s pretty shocking to me that somehow the Italians have surpassed
the Germans in organization and reliability when it comes to
transportation.

100% YES!

One more report: On 2 Oct., we arrived Munich arpt, needed 4 trains to get to Rothenberg ob der Tauber. One train was 5-10 min. late, so we missed the next train. We had to wait an hour or so for another. So not too bad overall. Trains not too crowded, always found seats. Trains clean.

My wife and I just got back from Germany; we were there for 3 weeks Sept 7 to the 28. We relied exclusively on the DB for transportation. Arriving in Munich, to Berchtesgaden, on to Fussen and the Ludwig Castles, then to Ravensburg and Biberach. After that to Freiberg and the Black Forest, and then to Zurich where we flew out. For the most part, 99%, the trains and busses were on time. At one transfer we had a train that was late by 10 minutes. In Munich at the Hfb, there was extensive construction. Going through the Hfb we had to transfer to another train but with all the construction, our train dropped us off about one block away from the station, we both had a regular bag and smaller bag for luggage, had to walk to the station, through the station to the opposite side, but we were late getting there, only had 13 minute transfer, which it looked as other folks missed the connection as well. I kept calm, remembered what Rick Steves said..."if you miss a train-simply catch the next one". With help from the TI Center at the Hfb, we caught the next train about 45 minutes later. So, all in all, not too bad. I was nervous at first, and at the beginning of each travel day, but I was pleasantly surprised!