It will take years to get Deutsche Bahn back on track

IN MID-MAY GERMANSDBEVGDBDBDBDBDBDB were bracing for the third, and longest, national rail strike this year. Deutsche Bahn () was locked in a dispute over pay with , the union representing most German railway workers, including 180,000 at the state-run behemoth. At the last minute union leaders called off a 50-hour stoppage that was going to begin on the evening of May 14th. German travellers breathed a sigh of relief—and then gasped as failed to reinstate all of the 50,000 cancelled services. The next day roads were clogged by commuters who, worried about getting stuck at a train station, took the car instead.On May 23rd and the union met for a fourth round of wage talks, with no long-term resolution in sight. And labour unrest is only one of many fronts on which is fighting. Once a source of national pride, it has become the butt of bad jokes (“We have one about but we don’t know whether it will work”). In April just 70% of its long-distance trains were on time. And even that was an improvement on the whole of last year, when only 60% were punctual; the company’s (unambitious) goal is at least 80%. services are “too crowded, too old and too ”, Berthold Huber, who sits on ’s board, told the a daily, this month.