The passenger association Pro Bahn has urged Federal Transport Minister Steffen Bilger (CDU) to strictly redefine what constitutes train punctuality and to seek external advice on the matter. According to Pro Bahn Chairman Lukas Iffländer, Bilger should use this opportunity to conduct an “honest punctuality assessment.” He advocates for reducing the threshold for delays to three minutes, mirroring the standard used in Switzerland, rather than the current six-minute cutoff. Furthermore, Iffländer insists that canceled train services should be counted as delays.
Iffländer stressed that the Minister would need to make significant efforts to properly structure the bonus schemes, arguing that railway managers have consistently outsmarted the ministry. Since missed services were not tallied as untimely, management once skipped numerous stops-only to return to schedule on the way back. This allowed former infrastructure board member Ronald Pofalla to collect substantial bonuses, even while the railway network clearly required comprehensive overhauls. Therefore, Pro Bahn suggests the Minister should consult experts who have not been involved in designing the bonuses thus far, to avoid leaving loopholes.
However, Iffländer cautioned that punctuality alone should not be the sole metric, because that too can be manipulated. He cited former Bahn executive Daniela Gerd tom Markotten, who announced that there were instances where construction works deemed necessary were planned to be skipped temporarily in order to artificially boost short-term punctuality-a practice that was fortunately prevented.
Overall, the Pro Bahn chief stated that the Federal Ministry of Transport needs to pay closer attention to the industry and associated organizations. Despite several proposals being put forward during discussions with the infrastructure company InfraGO-aimed at structuring bonuses in a way that prevents manipulation-none of these suggestions have been implemented.
