How Euro 2024 busted legend of German efficiency

Germany’s reputation for super-efficiency has suffered a body blow.

As football fans poured in and out of cities across the country for Euro 2024, they discovered the trains weren’t as good as they thought.

One supporters’ group even said services were better when Russia hosted the World Cup.

Fans praised “sensational” pricing deals which, for ticket holders, included discounted or even free local travel as part of a sustainability drive.

But Thomas Concannon from the Football Supporters’ Association complained: “We were in constant contact with fans who were experiencing problems.”

He believes surprise at the situation was partly borne out of a "pre-conceived reputation about Germany that the trains run on time”.

Lindsey and Darren Ramskill from Goole in East Yorkshire went to six out of England's seven matches and experienced packed trains, stop-start services and poor communication.

“I’m not moaning about British trains anymore,” said Lindsey. “Ours are better.”

Lindsey and Darren Ramskill were shocked by the rail service they experienced

Another football supporter from the neighbouring Netherlands, who travels a lot for his work as a motivational speaker, was less shocked.

“If I can, I try to avoid Germany now because there are always problems,” said Wiebe Wakker.

After the England v Netherlands semi-final, his delayed journey out of Dortmund included an “unbearably hot” carriage with no functioning air conditioning.

“Everyone was sweating,” he said. It was so “horrible” he got off and took a taxi the rest of the way with some England supporters.

Within Germany there’s been exasperation with the Deutsche Bahn (DB) national rail operator for years.

Just 64% of long-distance trains ran on time in 2023. That compares with a declining level of punctuality in Great Britain of 67.8% trains arriving on schedule in the year to March 2023.

However, DB counts punctuality as a train arriving within six minutes of the original schedule whereas UK figures are for services that arrive within just one minute.

In Germany, calls for desperately needed investment are often heard as part of a wider debate about how to boost a flagging economy.

German transport lobby group Allianz pro Schiene (pro-Rail alliance) compared spending per person on railway infrastructure across 14 European countries including the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy.

It found Germany was 10th last year at €115 (£97) per person, while the UK was sixth and Luxembourg topped the group with €512 per head.

For Germans it is no surprise that well-used motto "Vorsprung durch Technik" (Headstart through Technology) belies a less potent, more sluggish, picture.

Europe’s largest economy has for years quite publicly struggled with how to modernise.

Analysts do not just blame a lack of investment but a failure to digitise the economy married with tedious red tape.

Rules and paperwork can suck up valuable time for both businesses and people.

One example, in Berlin, is that you are legally required to make an in-person appointment to register a new home address within two weeks.

But good luck getting one.

The local government website offers no available appointments at all on Wednesday, right through to mid-September.

Both private and public sectors have seen under-investment for years, says Professor Hubertus Bardt from the German Economic Institute (IW).

Railways have undergone a “here and there” approach to repairs, he says, which "causes delays and doesn’t really solve the problems”.

More major works are now getting going such as the five-month mega-renewal on the Frankfurt-to-Mannheim line.

But Professor Bardt believes a “huge programme” of broader spending is needed which looks well beyond the annual budgets that can cause political agony for Germany’s ruling coalition.

“We have thousands of bridges that have to be renovated or rebuilt,” he says. The problem is primarily in western Germany which is creaking under infrastructure built in the sixties and seventies, while the east saw fresh investment after the Berlin Wall came down in 1989.

The overall view for Germany is worrying, as economic growth forecasts continue to put it at the bottom of the pile when compared with other G7 major economies.

It’s projected to grow by just 0.2% this year, according to the International Monetary Fund and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Efficiency, unrivalled industry and punctuality are labels that have stubbornly stuck to Germany’s reputation abroad but have long worn thin at home.