Mostly weak development
| Punctuality (%) | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | |
DB Group (rail) in Germany | 93.4 | 93.9 | 94.3 | |
DB-Schienenpersonenverkehr in Deutschland | 93.5 | 94.1 | 94.4 | |
DB Long-Distance | 74.9 | 78.5 | 78.9 | |
DB Regional | 94.0 | 94.4 | 94.8 | |
DB Cargo (Germany) | 72.9 | 73.4 | 76.2 | |
DB Arriva (rail: Great Britain, Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands und Poland) | 89.8 | 92.3 | 91.0 | |
DB Regional (bus) | 91.0 | 90.5 | 90.6 | |
DB Cargo (Europe) | 72.8 | 72.7 | 75.6 | |
The punctuality of our rail products in Germany showed an unsatisfactory development in the year under review. Both passenger and freight transport saw punctuality fall significantly below the values of the previous year.
Punctuality suffered from a higher utilization of the infrastructure. Further growth in rail transport combined with the expansion of the construction program and the associated reduction in network capacity had negative impacts on the development of punctuality. In contrast, it was possible to further reduce construction-related delays (delays that can be clearly linked to a construction site). The increasing traffic volume caused bottlenecks in both the infrastructure and with regard to staff and vehicle availability.
On the operational side, a large number of incidents in command and control technology and an increase in vehicle faults and incidents related to the provision of vehicles had a negative impact on punctuality.
In addition, in the year under review the number of external disruptions increased again slightly compared to the already very high levels of the previous year. One of the causes was the long heat wave during the summer. The excessively dry conditions, combined with high temperatures, resulted in two major embankment fires, one in Kassel in July 2018 and the other in Siegburg in August 2018. There was an additional strain due to weather-related restrictions, including due to the severe winter weather in February and March 2018 and the Friederike, Burglind and Fabienne storms, which caused major road undercutting and extensive line closures due to fallen trees.
The development of punctuality is therefore on weak level within the range of our adapted forecast from the Integrated Interim Report January - June 2018.