What's next for the struggling railway? The Transport Minister wants to develop the new federal government's plan by late summer.

A dilapidated rail network, delayed long-distance trains, disgruntled passengers: The new Federal Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder (CDU) wants to develop a strategy for the future of the struggling Deutsche Bahn by late summer. "The starting point is that we have to take a close look: Where do we want Deutsche Bahn to be in a few years? How do we get to the point where we implement the goals we set for Deutsche Bahn and ourselves?" Schnieder told the German Press Agency.

"We want to develop a strategy. We'll have it in my office by late summer at the latest. Then we'll have formulated key points for how we want the railway to be structured." Only then does Schnieder want to address personnel issues, such as whether and how things will continue for railway CEO Richard Lutz.

Finally, the coalition agreement states that, in view of the plight at Deutsche Bahn, the company's management board and supervisory board should also be restructured, "with the aim of reflecting more professional expertise and achieving streamlining."

But Schnieder doesn't believe in short-term personnel changes at the top of the company. "The coach is gone and everything will be fine – I think that's a short-term solution," he emphasized. "The goal is for us to have a functioning, well-positioned track. This involves much, much more than simple personnel issues."

The railway must become punctual, reliable, and clean. "It needs a sound infrastructure. It should operate economically. Perhaps it also needs to become more family-friendly," said the new transport minister. "These are the things we're looking at, the things we're defining. And then we'll see which path we take to get there. No one can be truly satisfied with the current situation."

The railway is neither reliable nor punctual, the minister said. Last year, the company's long-distance trains were more late than ever since the railway reform. This year, the company aims to ensure that at least 65 to 70 percent of its ICE and IC trains arrive without major delays. To achieve this, things would have to improve significantly in the remaining months than recently.

The problems lie primarily in the dilapidated infrastructure. It is considered overloaded and outdated. With the comprehensive renovation of more than 40 busy lines, the railway aims to become more reliable in the coming years. However, the CDU has always been skeptical about the project.

Schnieder emphasized that he intends to fundamentally adhere to the concept of so-called general renovations. "We also agreed in the coalition agreement that we would do this, but that we reserve the right to take a closer look." This also applies to the Hamburg-Berlin route, which is scheduled to be completely closed and modernized for around nine months starting in August.

"This is also a dialogue with many of those affected, where you look at whether the rail replacement service is okay, and whether other construction sites in the area need to be like this? It's always a matter of working on the details," said Schnieder.

Given the poor condition of the infrastructure, everyone agrees that the network needs to be renovated quickly. "Nevertheless, we have to consider: What is reasonable? Do I have to build nine high-performance corridors in parallel in one year? It's not about postponing it indefinitely. But we do have to consider whether we should reduce some of the burden here and there or postpone something."

The railway has already developed a plan to stretch the renovations. The final stretch would then not be completed until the mid-2030s, instead of the previously planned 2031.

The condition of the railway is also symbolic of a certain mood in the country, the minister emphasized. "People have the impression that not everything is working as it should anymore." Germany has always been considered reliable, especially abroad. "And we're noticing that this is no longer the case. And we don't just perceive this as a flaw in the system, but rather as a factor in the whole." Therefore, it's important to take fundamental action here and make things better.

After all, there's a lot of potential, especially in rail transport. "This is demonstrated by Flixtrain's announcement that they plan to purchase many new trains for billions of euros and operate the majority of them in Germany." The rail competitor announced at the end of May that it intended to purchase up to 65 new long-distance trains from Spanish manufacturer Talgo. "You can only do that if you believe it can work here," Schnieder said. "In that respect, the potential is there, and I also believe it will succeed."