Rail Infrastructure Chief Warns: Without Fewer Trains, Timetables Will Stay Unreliable—Why Political Action Is Needed for Better Punctuality

Germany's rail crisis: Will politicians choose punctuality over more trains?

Philipp Nagl, head of Germany's rail infrastructure, says achieving greater punctuality will only be possible if the number of trains is reduced. "We're operating at capacity in too many parts of the network," the rail executive told the Augsburger Allgemeine. When it comes to reliability, he framed the core dilemma as: "Quantity or quality? Volume or punctuality?" Nagl, CEO of Deutsche Bahn's infrastructure subsidiary DB InfraGO, stressed that politicians must make—and defend—this choice, as expanding the network will take years.

"We have to be honest: if we don't prioritize punctuality, we're only fooling ourselves," Nagl said. He called on the "Reliable Rail" task force—established by Federal Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder (CDU)—to deliver a "clear political decision" on how to manage operations during the upcoming wave of network upgrades. "We're facing construction on an enormous scale," he warned.