3 ms·

The reliability of German long-distance trains is objectively bad (and getting worse). Here are the official statistics: https://www.deutschebahn.com/de/konzern

by fsh 3y ago

The reliability of German long-distance trains is objectively bad (and getting worse). Here are the official statistics: https://www.deutschebahn.com/de/konzern/konzernprofil/zahlen_fakten/puenktlichkeitswerte-6878476 https://www.deutschebahn.com/de/konzern/konzernprofil/zahlen... The middle tab ("DB Fernverkehr") shows the percentage of trains arriving less than 16 minutes late (black) and less than 6 minutes late (red). In September 2023, 23% of trains were more than 15 minutes late! Compare this to Switzerland's SBB: https://reporting.sbb.ch/punctuality?highlighted=e68508fb2043b7a18b16ea59ebcdd868 https://reporting.sbb.ch/punctuality?highlighted=e68508fb204... The SBB already considers a train late when it arrives more than 2 minutes after the scheduled time. Yet, they routinely achieve more than 90% punctuality rates.

josefx 3y ago
> Here are the official statistics: https://www.deutschebahn.com/de/konzern/konzernprofil/zahlen https://www.deutschebahn.com/de/konzern/konzernprofil/zahlen... A few years ago David Kriesel did some independent data mining on the reported delays. One point that came up is that official statistics do not even cover train stops that where cancelled and I think it was also mentioned that cancelling stops was one of the ways used to make up for lost time if needed to avoid knock-on effects. German presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rb9CfOvojk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rb9CfOvojk
- mro_name 3y ago
  popcorn!
- majewsky 3y ago
  The same presentation without Google tracking: https://media.ccc.de/v/36c3-10652-bahnmining_-_punktlichkeit_ist_eine_zier https://media.ccc.de/v/36c3-10652-bahnmining_-_punktlichkeit...
JW_00000 3y ago
Interesting. As a point of comparison, here are the official statistics of the Belgian railways: https://punctuality.belgiantrain.be/nl/dashboard https://punctuality.belgiantrain.be/nl/dashboard Last year, 10% of trains were delayed by > 6 minutes; this year 12%. Note, some common complaints about these statistics are: 1. They measure delay at arrival at the end station. However, many trains have some margins built in during their ride, so they may be delayed en-route but "catch up" by the time they reach their end destination; resulting in more favorable numbers. 2. Cancelled trains are not counted in the statistics. So ironically, to improve punctuality statistics, it is "better" to cancel a train than having it run with a delay. 3. Trains are more delayed during peak hours than off-peak or during the weekend, but all trains count equally in these numbers. 4. If a (e.g. 5 minute) delay causes you to miss your transfer, you arrive much later at your final destination (e.g. 30 or 60 minutes). 5. If you inflate travel times (adding some extra "margin"), you can avoid bad statistics but passengers still don't get at their destination faster. This has happened in the past. A fairer way to calculate delays would be to take a sample of all passengers and measure how delayed they arrive at their (final) destination. An organization that advocates for public transport users (TreinTramBus) has done this in the past, I thought, but I can't find it back.

by fsh 3y ago

josefx 3y ago

> Here are the official statistics: https://www.deutschebahn.com/de/konzern/konzernprofil/zahlen https://www.deutschebahn.com/de/konzern/konzernprofil/zahlen... A few years ago David Kriesel did some independent data mining on the reported delays. One point that came up is that official statistics do not even cover train stops that where cancelled and I think it was also mentioned that cancelling stops was one of the ways used to make up for lost time if needed to avoid knock-on effects. German presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rb9CfOvojk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rb9CfOvojk

mro_name 3y ago
popcorn!
majewsky 3y ago
The same presentation without Google tracking: https://media.ccc.de/v/36c3-10652-bahnmining_-_punktlichkeit_ist_eine_zier https://media.ccc.de/v/36c3-10652-bahnmining_-_punktlichkeit...

JW_00000 3y ago

Interesting. As a point of comparison, here are the official statistics of the Belgian railways: https://punctuality.belgiantrain.be/nl/dashboard https://punctuality.belgiantrain.be/nl/dashboard Last year, 10% of trains were delayed by > 6 minutes; this year 12%. Note, some common complaints about these statistics are: 1. They measure delay at arrival at the end station. However, many trains have some margins built in during their ride, so they may be delayed en-route but "catch up" by the time they reach their end destination; resulting in more favorable numbers. 2. Cancelled trains are not counted in the statistics. So ironically, to improve punctuality statistics, it is "better" to cancel a train than having it run with a delay. 3. Trains are more delayed during peak hours than off-peak or during the weekend, but all trains count equally in these numbers. 4. If a (e.g. 5 minute) delay causes you to miss your transfer, you arrive much later at your final destination (e.g. 30 or 60 minutes). 5. If you inflate travel times (adding some extra "margin"), you can avoid bad statistics but passengers still don't get at their destination faster. This has happened in the past. A fairer way to calculate delays would be to take a sample of all passengers and measure how delayed they arrive at their (final) destination. An organization that advocates for public transport users (TreinTramBus) has done this in the past, I thought, but I can't find it back.