DB Fernverkehr has reduced the scheduled working hours of its traveling staff by about half an hour from 1 March, citing the numerous delays that have plagued the network.
The company’s board member Michael Peterson told the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” that, in addition, an extra half‑hour buffer will now be scheduled for hand‑overs between one ICE and the next on particularly vulnerable trains. This brings the total available buffer time to up to 90 minutes.
Both measures are intended to relieve conductors, train drivers and catering personnel, who are increasingly forced to juggle collapsing shift plans amid persistent lateness. “We take our employees’ situation very seriously” Peterson remarked. “We counteract wherever we can”.
Last year DB Fernverkehr had already hired 450 additional staff members to mitigate delays. “This year we’re adding another 150, bringing the total to 600” Peterson told the newspaper. “We’re making large investments to address this”. Thanks to a more resilient timetable, the company has already improved punctuality by 2.5 percentage points. “Nonetheless, I can’t offset the 20 percentage points of tardiness caused by broken tracks and construction sites” he added.
A recent source of employee frustration stemmed from a directive issued to conductors that outlined highly detailed requirements for cleanliness and on‑board announcements. “The wording of the directive was confusing for some staff, and we later realized we weren’t communicating enough” Peterson explained. “We recognize that our communication needs improvement”.
