The fact that much is wrong at Deutsche Bahn can be seen, for example, in the progress that managers of the state-owned company can already look forward to. A few years ago, a working group was set up at Frankfurt Central Station to prevent trains from leaving too late. One of the reasons: There was no fixed place where the train drivers found the necessary documents for a train journey. Sometimes they had to search, which took time.

Then a fixed handover point was agreed. In a company whose history dates back to 1835, you think as an outsider: well. This could have been achieved earlier, even without a task force.

Now Deutsche Bahn has discovered the general renovation of railway lines. Not many small construction sites one after the other, but once a big one, and then rest for many years. The pilot project: the Frankfurt-Mannheim connection, second half of 2024. It's obvious, makes sense, but you also think: well. Construction site organization, they should have been able to do that at Deutsche Bahn for some time.

More important, therefore, is the subtext when the real Federal Minister of Transport and the infrastructure board member of Deutsche Bahn travel by train to Lampertheim, only to explain the new form of general renovation in one go: Something is happening with the railway, it is taken seriously again after decades in which transport policy only knew the car, attention is now being paid to both means of transport. And it is also true that renovations contribute more quickly to more punctuality than new lines, which so far only exist on paper. It is urgent, says Minister Volker Wissing (FDP). Oh yes.

Those who will suffer in the second half of 2024 from the closure of the railway line through southern Hesse and, if they should switch to the car, even then still have to go through the construction site at the Darmstadt motorway junction with its bottlenecks, which will remain until 2025, should console themselves with the fact that it is only about five tricky months.

According to this, rail traffic should run more smoothly than it has for a long time. The minister and the board have promised it.