A year of Western European train delays visualized(chuuchuu.com)
chuuchuu.com
A year of Western European train delays visualized
https://chuuchuu.com/2025wrapped
5 comments
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If you dive deeper into Switzerland most delayed trains are the ones that orginate in Germany.
DB is really the worst. I wonder if that is partly due to the automotive industry being so important in Germany that they roads siphon money from rails
DB is really the worst. I wonder if that is partly due to the automotive industry being so important in Germany that they roads siphon money from rails
> DB is really the worst. I wonder if that is partly due to the automotive industry being so important in Germany that they roads siphon money from rails
Trying to compensate for historic under investment now necessitates a lot of construction at once.
Nowadays Germany invests almost 200 euro per capita into rails (that's a lot by international standards and upper-middle-tier by European standards) and is a strong contender for having one of the densest rail networks in Europe. Investment would probably be even higher if they could figure out how to launch yet another construction project without causing the entire thing to grind to a full stop.
But investment and miles of track still relatively lag behind how heavily its rail network is utilized. Due to where it sits in the continent, ludicrous amounts of people and freight (especially freight) want to move through Germany's congested network everyday.
One one hand all the trains are late and very expensive, on the other hand certain operators would be happy if they got to move Germany's numbers even without getting to charge Germany's premium prices*. Depending on your point of view Germany's rail network is either suffering from success or being held back by terrible management.
* Ballpark freight numbers are that Germany moves roughly 4x France's volume of ton-kilometers while pulling in around 6-7x France's revenue.
Trying to compensate for historic under investment now necessitates a lot of construction at once.
Nowadays Germany invests almost 200 euro per capita into rails (that's a lot by international standards and upper-middle-tier by European standards) and is a strong contender for having one of the densest rail networks in Europe. Investment would probably be even higher if they could figure out how to launch yet another construction project without causing the entire thing to grind to a full stop.
But investment and miles of track still relatively lag behind how heavily its rail network is utilized. Due to where it sits in the continent, ludicrous amounts of people and freight (especially freight) want to move through Germany's congested network everyday.
One one hand all the trains are late and very expensive, on the other hand certain operators would be happy if they got to move Germany's numbers even without getting to charge Germany's premium prices*. Depending on your point of view Germany's rail network is either suffering from success or being held back by terrible management.
* Ballpark freight numbers are that Germany moves roughly 4x France's volume of ton-kilometers while pulling in around 6-7x France's revenue.
That all may be true and right, but looks and sounds so abstract. Since a picture says more than thousand words, I'll leave some here, of the same point, right at the border between the Netherlands and Germany:
https://openstreetmap.de/karte/?zoom=17&lat=51.90181&lon=6.1...
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Ynqa5V8YAZgiqdoJ6
https://www.bing.com/maps?cp=51.901264%7E6.137596&lvl=18.7&s...
What do they have in common?
On the Dutch side 3 modern tracks, fully operational.
One of them ending abruptly at a buffer stop.
Why?
Because the German side has only two old tracks.
This is going on for slightly more than a decade, IIRC.
So it could be said that Germany is putting the Dutch investment on the "Abstellgleis", because...why not?
Same shit is going on at the https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenner-Nordzulauf#Stand_auf_d... for the https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brennerbasistunnel
Als möglicher Termin für einen Baubeginn in Deutschland wird der Anfang der 2030er Jahre genannt, für eine Fertigstellung 2040.
WIE BITTE?!
Two smaller countries, doing massive rail infrastructure projects, 'can do' mostly on time and budget.
Why can't Germany?
Hmmhrrrhmm. What else comes to mind? Oh yes! The https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fehmarnbelttunnel
Germany zero points again. Denmark more, wins! Or not. Because of what use is a bridge, err... tunnel to nowhere, for more years than necessary?
https://openstreetmap.de/karte/?zoom=17&lat=51.90181&lon=6.1...
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Ynqa5V8YAZgiqdoJ6
https://www.bing.com/maps?cp=51.901264%7E6.137596&lvl=18.7&s...
What do they have in common?
On the Dutch side 3 modern tracks, fully operational.
One of them ending abruptly at a buffer stop.
Why?
Because the German side has only two old tracks.
This is going on for slightly more than a decade, IIRC.
So it could be said that Germany is putting the Dutch investment on the "Abstellgleis", because...why not?
Same shit is going on at the https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenner-Nordzulauf#Stand_auf_d... for the https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brennerbasistunnel
Als möglicher Termin für einen Baubeginn in Deutschland wird der Anfang der 2030er Jahre genannt, für eine Fertigstellung 2040.
WIE BITTE?!
Two smaller countries, doing massive rail infrastructure projects, 'can do' mostly on time and budget.
Why can't Germany?
Hmmhrrrhmm. What else comes to mind? Oh yes! The https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fehmarnbelttunnel
Germany zero points again. Denmark more, wins! Or not. Because of what use is a bridge, err... tunnel to nowhere, for more years than necessary?
136 years That's how long Europeans collectively spent waiting for delayed trains in 2025.
Is that just summing up each train's delay without taking number of passengers into account?