I was one of three regular railway passengers asked by German weekly paper Die Zeit to meet head of DB Fernverkehr Michael Peterson to discuss Deutsche Bahn’s current woes. The interview appeared in the printed paper on 9 March 2023, and is online here (paywalled).
“Worth: Den Ärger, den ich häufig in den ICEs zwischen Berlin und Brüssel erlebe, gibt es schon seit 2010. Seit 13 Jahren! Wir Fahrgäste hören seit Jahren von der Deutschen Bahn: Gemach, spätestens in zehn Jahren wird es besser. Mal ehrlich: Sollen wir das diesmal wirklich glauben?
Peterson: Luftleere Versprechungen sind meine Sache nicht. Wir haben 2019, als ich die Verantwortung für den DB-Fernverkehr übernommen habe, sogleich neue ICEs bestellt, die nun helfen, einige der genannten Probleme zu beseitigen. Übrigens auch auf Ihrer Problemstrecke, Herr Worth.”
Also this week Miquel Ros wrote “Europe is trying to ditch planes for trains. Here’s how that’s going” for CNN:
“On quite a few corridors, rail could get a share of multimodal transportation way above the current one. Rail operators have focused on maximizing profit rather than market share. The latter can only be achieved either by running railways as a public service or by introducing more competition,” he says.
Better connectivity between intercity rail and airports would also reduce the need for short-haul flights. Worth adds that it’s essential to offer combined tickets, so that, for example, if a train is delayed and the connection is missed, travelers are accommodated on the next one, as happens now with connecting flights.
@Miquel Ros:
The problem are not short-distance flights, but long-distance flights.
Trains should strive to take up the larger part even of intermodal travel, e.g. night train from a train stop at Karlsruhe to Barcelona, flight from there to Mallorca. Train stop at Erfurt heading for Rome, proceed short-haul flight to Sardinia or Greece. Rome train/air terminal would be a hub connecting various short-distance flights to various islands, with trains from London, Amsterdam, Paris, Cologne, Berlin etc.
Interconnecting flights are often close to free or even have negative prices, this type of low-cost fares must end.