Nicolas Fulkrug arrived early in the morning at the Adidas campus just outside Herzogenaurach, a picturesque town in Bavaria that is scheduled to host the German national team ahead of this summer's European soccer championship. Staff were told players would begin arriving Monday morning, a few days before their opening game. But Fulkrug, one of the team's forwards, arrived on Sunday night.
He had decided to make the 300-mile trip from his home in Hanover by high-speed train on Deutsche Bahn, Germany's national rail service. The company was not only one of the tournament's sponsors; it was also considered a standard-bearer for the event's ecological credentials.
But years of failure to invest in rolling stock, upgrade railways and digitalise signal boxes have made Deutsche Bahn notorious for delays and cancellations. In a country that has long prided itself on its efficiency and punctuality, German – fans as well – There had been warnings for months that these problems could harm the tournament.
So Fulkrug was not surprised when he found himself on a train full of high school students on a class trip. He answered their questions about life with the national team during the trip.
By the time he reached Herzogenaurach, he had to travel several hours longer than expected, which is not ideal preparation for a top athlete on the eve of a major tournament. Still, the delay at least vindicated his decision to make the most of the extra time. In Germany, as Fullkrug said, “Have some respect for Deutsche Bahn,
Many of the millions of fans from across Europe – A significant number of people also came from the United States – Those who have joined him in Germany, after an often stressful opening week, will no doubt understand what he means.
Deutsche Bahn has been central to Germany's plans for the tournament. The company offered discounted prices on “climate-friendly train travel” in what organisers claimed would be the “most sustainable” edition of the European Championship. When the draw for the tournament was made in December, the stage decorations included miniature versions of Deutsche Bahn's long-distance, high-speed trains.
Still, as fans flocked to Germany to follow their teams, the country’s rail network collapsed. Even before the tournament began on June 14, workers from the Munich transport authority were dispatched to hand out ice pops to passengers suffering from extreme heat who were stuck for hours on stalled trains around the city.
In Gelsenkirchen, an industrial town in the Ruhr Valley, some England fans worried about missing their team's kickoff decided to walk three miles to the city's stadium after the tram stopped. In Stuttgart, Hungary fans arriving at the city's main train station for a game on Thursday found that, thanks to a major renovation project that began in 2010, it had been replaced by a giant hole.
Instead of coming through a huge hall, disembarking passengers have been sent through huge wooden tunnels that lead into the city. “I'm here to give them directions,” said a representative from the Hungarian consulate, one of more than a dozen officials sent to give directions to arriving passengers but unwilling to attach his name to the effort.
Despite their best efforts, some fans found the tunnels so long and confusing that, even when they had almost passed through them, they turned back and retraced their steps in the hope of getting out of the train station quicker. (Deutsche Bahn) Recently announced (Completion of the project in Stuttgart has been delayed again to December 2026.)
The local transport situation in Hamburg, Cologne and Düsseldorf has been slightly better: after the match between Hungary and Switzerland in Cologne on June 15, trams were lined up outside the stadium to disperse the crowds as quickly as possible.
Long-distance trains – offered at a discounted rate to fans – have been equally unpredictable. Germany's rail network is more than 20,000 miles long. But in the past 70 years almost half the length of track has been torn up, leaving existing routes overloaded as demand for both freight and passenger transport has grown.
One train being late has a knock-on effect on other trains, causing widespread delays across the system. According to Deutsche Bahn, only 63 percent of the system's trains arrived at their destinations on time last month. That compares with more than 94 percent in neighboring Austria and 87 percent in France.
The situation has become such an embarrassment for Germany that Felix Dachel, a columnist for Der Spiegel, one of the country's biggest media outlets, felt the need last week to “Apologize in all 21 tournament languages” for the state of rail service. (At least he’s taking it with good humor: After all, he said, what could be more environmentally friendly than a train that doesn’t move?)
“You can beat Germany, but you will lose to Deutsche Bahn,” he wrote.
Critics say the system has lacked investment in the decades since Deutsche Bahn was formed as a private company in 1994 by combining the state railways of eastern and western Germany. The German government is its sole shareholder.
“It has been clear strategically for a long time that money is lacking,” said Andreas Nie, a professor at the Berlin Social Science Center whose research covers transit and technology. “The amount that should have been invested in railroads should have been, as a general rule, twice the amount that was actually invested.”
This arrangement persisted for some time. When Germany last hosted a major tournament, the 2006 men's World Cup, Deutsche Bahn's excellent service was seen as a key component in the event's success, helping to foster an enduring image of Germany as a well-run, thoroughly modern nation.
This time, many fans – as well as Fulkrug – have learned to take the timetable as a guideline. That was no help for Austrian fans trying to get to Dusseldorf to watch their team's match against France last Monday. Dozens were stuck in Germany immediately after crossing the border, with some not even making it to the game until quite late. in the second half,
Deutsche Bahn has said it will apologise personally to those stranded. “We ask fans to contact us,” said Ralf Thieme, who is responsible for Deutsche Bahn stations. “We will find a good and fair way to compensate them.”
The problems have grown to such an extent that, ban on government spendingGermany has set aside 40 billion euros, or $42.7 billion, to invest in its aging railways. Work is set to begin on 40 major corridors this year.
Deutsche Bahn has already warned that this means there will be dozens of construction sites on major routes, and with them even more delays. Still, at least fans don't have to worry. Work isn't expected to start until July 15 – the day after the final.
Tariq Panja And Christopher F. Schuetze Contributed reporting.