Deutsche Bahn's long-distance trains have recently been more unpunctual than ever before. This is also due to a lack of personnel for the signal boxes. Some regions in Germany are hit particularly hard.
If rail customers thought that things couldn't get any worse after the first half of the year with countless delays and train cancellations, they hadn't reckoned with Deutsche Bahn – or rather without its personnel planning. There is a shortage of employees for the network's control centers: signal boxes cannot be manned for several shifts in some cases. But the signal boxes are the head and heart of the rail system.
In these control centres, train journeys are planned, switches are set and level crossings are monitored. A dispatcher from southern Germany confirms tagesschau.de the understaffing.
A Germany-wide problem
“Signal boxes keep breaking down all over Germany,” says the train dispatcher, who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of being fired. “Often in Thuringia or, especially now, in Baden-Württemberg in the Mannheim area. For example, Neckargemünd or Ludwigshafen main station. But it is a problem across Germany.” Rail customers experience what it means when a signal box breaks down completely almost every day. Whole routes are closed and trains have to be diverted over wide areas.
Newer signal boxes work automatically. Nevertheless, there always has to be a person on site to monitor the system, intervene in the event of a malfunction or authorize unplanned shunting operations. But Deutsche Bahn lacks these dispatchers – hundreds of employees across Germany are at stake. And so DB has to close some signal boxes completely. The DB-Watch portal has calculated that from August to December of last year alone, signal boxes were unoccupied on more than 100 days.
The existing staff suffers
According to Deutsche Bahn, these are isolated cases. “The absolute number sounds high at first,” said railway spokesman Achim Stauß when asked. “Measured against the many signal boxes that we have, it is an exception. But every exception is one too many. Of course, we aim to be manned around the clock.”
But it's not just the travelers who are suffering from the staff shortage. For a long time, the existing employees have had to cushion the bottleneck. “We're on our last legs,” says the insider. The supervisors are putting the dispatchers under massive pressure. “If someone is absent because of illness, for example, the employees who are actually off or on vacation are called. And if someone doesn't answer the phone, a supervisor drives to the people's homes and rings.” In such cases, supervisors would lure them with special payments, but ignore the health of the employees.
The railway has recognized the problem
Many train dispatchers are overworked and therefore often sick. 55 working hours per week are not uncommon. And since trains have to run seven days a week, most weekends are not free either. According to the insider, the overwork even means that safety is at risk.
The DB Group disagrees – the railway spokesman does not want to hear anything about a safety problem. The collective agreement does not allow for a higher workload. The railway has recognized the shortage of staff and is trying to counteract it.
“We noticed two years ago that there was a shortage of staff and that there were bottlenecks in the area of dispatchers,” says company spokesman Stauß. A training initiative has been launched and 250 positions have already been filled. But the initiative takes time. “We are confident that we can gradually reduce these bottlenecks.” He does not want to comment on the fact that the problem has existed for years.
Vacancies still unfilled for a long time
From internal documents provided to the SWR It is clear from the data available that the train company's training initiative will test the patience of passengers for some time to come. While all vacancies in northern Germany are to be filled this year, in the south even more vacancies remain unfilled than before. Deutsche Bahn will therefore not have enough train dispatchers again until the end of 2025.
