Germany Sacks Rail Chief With Train Network In Crisis
Once widely admired for its punctuality and efficiency, Germany's rail service has worsened dramatically in recent years owing to what critics say is chronic underinvestment.
Passengers now often complain of long delays and cancelled trains in Europe's biggest economy -- last year, almost 40 percent of long-distance services were late.
Richard Lutz, who took the helm of the publicly owned institution in 2017, will leave his chief executive post two years before the end of his contract, the government confirmed.
"The situation at Deutsche Bahn is dramatic, if you look at customer satisfaction, punctuality figures or profitability," Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder told a press conference to announce Lutz's departure.
"The company must become faster, leaner, more effective and also more economical."
The 61-year-old will stay on until a successor is found, with the government saying the hiring process would start immediately.
Karl-Peter Naumann from rail passenger association Pro-Bahn warned that changing the boss would not solve Deutsche Bahn's problems.
The situation would only change if policies improved and funding was increased, he told AFP.
"All previous transport ministers have more or less failed and have contributed greatly to the railways being in the situation they are in today," he said.
Lutz's days had seemed numbered since a new coalition under Chancellor Friedrich Merz took power in May.
Schnieder had publicly complained earlier this month about the railways' poor punctuality and suggested he was looking at personnel changes.
Workers on the railways -- Deutsche Bahn has some 220,000 employees -- had also spoken out against Lutz, with the GDL train drivers union calling in July for him to be sacked.
The transport minister also said he would present a major plan to fix the network in late September.
The government's is seeking to fix crumbling infrastructure more broadly, establishing a 500-billion-euro fund.
Deutsche Bahn has already embarked on a push to renew parts of the network but it is likely to take years to complete.
It has seen falling profits in recent years and is also saddled with more than 20 billion euros in debt. The government's is seeking to fix crumbling infrastructure more broadly AFP Passengers now frequently complain of long delays and cancelled trains in Europe's biggest economy AFP Railway workers had also spoken out against Lutz, with the GDL train drivers union calling for him to be sacked. AFP
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
DW
6 hours ago
- DW
Germany updates: Merz backs possible Putin-Zelenskyy meeting – DW – 08/16/2025
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and other European leaders have signed a joint statement backing a meeting between Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. DW has more. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has backed a potential meeting between the presidents of Ukraine, Russia and the United States. In other news, a prominent German lawmaker has made the case for Switzerland to join the European Union, particularly in light of the heavy tariffs placed on the Alpine country by the United States. Meanwhile, a man suspected of sexually abusing a 6-year-old girl at the Rulantica water park in Germany has been detained in Romania, according to German lawmaker Omid Nouripour has suggested that Switzerland could become a member of the European Union. "The German government should offer Switzerland the opportunity to quickly deepen cooperation, up to turbo membership in the EU," Nouripour, who is vice president of the German lower house of parliament (the Bundestag), told the German DPA news agency. "If our Swiss friends want to move closer to the European Union in light of new times, Germany should actively support this," he added. US President Donald Trump has imposed a hefty 39% tariff on imports from Switzerland, far higher than the 15% tariff on most products from the EU. Swiss economic associations have claimed this has put tens of thousands of jobs at risk. With a population of 9 million, Switzerland relies heavily on exports, with the US being the most important market, accounting for 18% in 2024. "For centuries, the Swiss have maintained a tradition of strict neutrality," said Nouripour. "However, the recent tariff dispute with Donald Trump painfully shows how vulnerable smaller states are when they are left to fend for themselves. Politically neutral, economically global — That no longer works in the new era." "From a Swiss perspective, the EU may not be the best choice, but it is by far the more reliable one," he said. For now, EU membership seems unlikely, with Switzerland's strongest party by votes, the right-wing populist Swiss People's Party (SVP), strictly against the notion. A 31-year-old man suspected of sexually abusing a 6-year-old girl at the Rulantica water park in Germany has been detained in Romania, police said in a statement. "Following intensive police investigations, the 31-year-old suspect was arrested in Romania on Friday evening," the statement read. "No further details about the arrest in Romania are available at this time," the statement added. Authorities had been searching for the Romanian national via an international arrest warrant. He is accused of taking the child from the Rulantica water park in Rust, near the French border, into a nearby wooded area last Saturday and abusing her. The man, who also lives in the region, allegedly left the child alone after the assault. She was discovered after being missing for around two hours. Police said surveillance footage identified the suspect. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz joined French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in backing a three-way meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Russia's Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump. The support for such a meeting comes after a US-Russia summit failed to yield any results as Trump and Putin met in Alaska. Merz, Macron, Starmer and Von der Leyen signed a statement supporting Ukrainian presence at any future US-Russia summits and insisted on maintaining pressure on Moscow, including through sanctions. The statement was also signed by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. The European leaders also insisted Russia "cannot have a veto against Ukraine's pathway to EU and NATO." "It will be up to Ukraine to make decisions on its territory. International borders must not be changed by force." Merz posted on X: "We welcomed President Trump's efforts to stop the killing in Ukraine, end Russia's war of aggression, and achieve just and lasting peace. Ukraine can count on our unwavering solidarity as we work towards a peace that safeguards Ukraine's and Europe's vital security interests." To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video from the Bonn online news team and welcome to our weekend edition of this blog covering current affairs in Germany. Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz, along with other European leaders, has backed a possible meeting between Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. Follow up on this and more news, videos and analyses on the latest in Germany this weekend.
Local Germany
7 hours ago
- Local Germany
European leaders back Putin-Trump-Zelensky meeting
A statement, signed by French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, insisted on maintaining pressure on Russia until peace was achieved, including through sanctions. The European leaders also insisted Moscow "cannot have a veto" on Ukraine joining the European Union or NATO. Russia has made clear it will not tolerate Kyiv's membership of the defence alliance. But the leaders said they were "ready to work ... towards a trilateral summit with European support". Friday's Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska ended without the US president extracting concrete commitments from Putin to halt Russia's invasion of Ukraine launched in February 2022. "We will continue to strengthen sanctions and wider economic measures to put pressure on Russia's war economy until there is a just and lasting peace," said the European joint statement. European leaders had been uneasy over Trump's diplomatic outreach to Putin, arguing that Zelensky should have been involved in the Alaska summit. In a separate statement, Starmer praised Trump's efforts as bringing "us closer than ever before to ending Russia's illegal war in Ukraine". Macron, writing on X, cautioned against what he said was Russia's "well-documented tendency to not keep its own commitments". He called for any future peace deal to have "unbreakable" security guarantees. He also argued for increased pressure on Russia until "a solid and durable peace" had been achieved. Advertisement The European leaders welcomed what they called "security guarantees" made by Trump without giving details. A diplomatic source told AFP that Trump had offered Ukraine guarantees similar to -- but separate from -- NATO membership. "Strong security guarantees that protect Ukrainian and European vital security interests are essential," European Commission chief von der Leyen said on X. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban -- who has friendly ties with both Trump and Putin -- hailed the summit. "For years we have watched the two biggest nuclear powers dismantle the framework of their cooperation and shoot unfriendly messages back and forth. That has now come to an end. Today the world is a safer place than it was yesterday," Orban said on X.
Local Germany
11 hours ago
- Local Germany
Inside Germany: A shake-up at Deutsche Bahn and tips for the summer heat
Inside Germany is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in Germany that you might've missed. It's published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article. Der Zug endet hier I once heard a German describe hating Deutsche Bahn (DB) as 'Germany's unofficial pastime' and I have yet to find a better way to sum up the country's fraught relationship with its national railway company. This week it was announced that DB's CEO has been kicked to the curb - or, for him ' dieser Zug endet hier ', if you will. Richard Lutz, who has been at the helm of DB since 2017, will leave his chief executive post two years before the end of his contract, Germany's Transport Minister confirmed. But while it's largely true that under Lutz's leadership DB has 'slid from one negative headline to the next', as a report in BR24 put it, it's not clear that a new CEO would be able to do much about it - certainly not in the short term. The first major challenge the next boss will face is improving DB's overall punctuality, which has gotten notoriously bad in recent years . In long-distance traffic, less than two-thirds of stops are now reached on time, and this has resulted in increasingly low customer satisfaction. But improving punctuality at DB will not be easy, because it's inherently linked to the other major challenges that the company faces, namely; infrastructure, politics, lack of funding and just to top it all off, looming collective bargaining negotiations. (Yes, we can presumably look forward to more transport strikes next year.) DB's infrastructure issues are extensive - large parts of major connections need an extensive overhaul. And while DB has a long-term construction plan in place, funding from the government never quite seems to be adequate. Add to that a federal government that will soon be frantically trying to close a massive budget gap and a national economy that has been teetering on the edge of recession for years… All of which is to say I don't envy whoever it is that takes over at DB, but I do hope they can succeed to some degree despite all odds against them. After all, the only thing worse than a delayed train, is having no train at all. As an American, I can fully attest to this. Advertisement Where is this? Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Bodo Schackow This overhead view comes from a road in the eastern region of Germany, not too far from the border with the Czech Republic. Here a two-lane road is suspended directly above the reservoir of the Zeulenroda dam. Zeulenroda is a town in the Thuringian Slate Mountains, just south of Gera and west of the saxon cities of Zwickau and Chemnitz . It's been hot In last week's Inside Germany update we suggested that a bout of high temperatures were on the way, and indeed, this week the weather delivered . This week the German Weather Service (DWD) had heat warnings in place for most regions in the country. At time of writing (on Friday afternoon), heat warnings were still in place for most of the country and - as if the sheer heat wasn't enough - severe storm warnings were also in place in parts of Baden-Wurttemberg and Bavaria. Advertisement The heatwave is expected to recede in most parts of the country just ahead of the weekend, but something tells me that Germany may not have seen its last heatwave of this summer. So in case you want to get ahead of the next one, here a few topical explainers we published this week to help you stay cool: If you live in Germany, odds are you probably don't have air conditioning - so here's a few tips to help you keep the apartment cool without it. And if you've tried most of those and the heat in your home is still unbearable, you may be able to claim a reduction in your rent - here's how . Warm weather also tends to bring out the bugs: Rachel Loxton explained some tricks for dealing with those . Lastly, hot - or even just fair weather - days in Germany are great for one thing in particular: trips to your local swimming hole. In case you're interested in trying out a new one, you could check out guides to Berlin's best lakes , Bavaria's best swim spots , cities with swimmable rivers , or these reader tips for making the best of a lake day .
