Germany’s rail industry model “should be an example” to other countries in the EU looking to boost competition, DB chief executive Rüdiger Grube has said.
Announcing the publication of the 12th DB Competition Report, Grube said that competition has continued to improve in the country in the past year and hit out at the EU’s Fourth Railway Package which calls for the separation of train operators from infrastructure managers.
Grube said: “Given this positive trend in Germany we have no sympathy for efforts by the EU Commission to smash the integrated railway systems in Europe.”
DB said that last year, passenger numbers increased by 49 million – setting a new record – and freight levels performed marginally better than the European average.
“The successful German model should instead be an example for other countries to finally allow more competition on the track,” added Grube.
So Germany should be a model with 49 million extra passengers whilst the UK with 114 million extra passenger journeys (at least 57 million extra passengers, assuming all journeys were returns) shouldn’t?
If you compare it to the population of the countries it is 60% of the German population in extra passengers compared with at least 90% of the UK population in extra passengers, which makes the comparison even more stark.