This is the first step towards privatisation. Kinda like how the NHS is doing. Institutions are being underfunded and doctors are not being produced. Then they say "ah well I guess socialism doesn't work" and pull the net from under you.
this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2025
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Its already privatized and mass-privatization in the west (germany) happened in the 90s as a response to the "economical drain" that was "synching the former GDR to the west". The federal government just owns large shares in DB. In most federal states there are also several other private companies that run trains like SWEG (which is owned by the federal state), which was basically the only company that actually provided train transit to my home region.
I don't have personal experience, but I would watch out. Neo liberals in the UK used a strategy of what I like to call "crushing you with tungsten to make iron feel light." They made the trains worse and worse so they'd have an excuse to privatize them, so the inefficiency of private rail wasn't as obvious since it was still better than the hampered government service
It is either being sabotaged or criminally neglected. Either way the objective result is the same which is the severe decay of the rail transport system that anyone who lives in Germany can and likely has at some point experienced first hand. To deny that this is happening would simply be gaslighting.
Its no conspiracy theory. You can absolutely prove their intent. The idea is to privatize all transportation (and all infrastructure and basic needs). To do that the people need some convincing since bahn is partially state owned. That of course needs to change. Otherwise profit wont go as high and regulations for passenger safety cant be avoided as easily.
Okay thank you, so I'm not hallucinating. Do you have any idea where I could find evidence on this? I can't really find any sources exposing this, I want to collect evidence. When I search for "DB sabotage" the only thing that comes up are some fear-articles about supposed future cyberattacks on critical infrastructure.
I think it could be useful in the future. Where could I start the research?
In my opinion, the modus operandi of these people (lobbyist politicians) is always the same. Defund, destabilize and disable.
You can look at the legislation and apply normal due diligence. Iirc they are also disabling parts of the railway network. You can check the CCCs work on this. They have large groups of people working on this. https://media.ccc.de/ is pretty good for cold analysis of technical stuff. They also unveiled the sabotage of the polish train system.
Trump is doing these things more openly now but I'll bet anything you can find the pattern, just not as easy.
If you can read german: https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/ has articles from time to time regarding the Bahn. Some interesting links should come up.
Furthermore, train infrastructure stands in opposition to car infrastructure. If everything is transported by rail, who needs all those cars to get shit from a to b? Same with private mobility, if a reliable train net would exist, people would be less reliant on cars.
The car industry is one of the ruling factions of germany.
Absolutely. Germany also has huge assets in the car industry. VW, one of the worst offenders ans whose chairmen were recently sentenced to jail for their own mass murder (through exhaust fume manipulation) and still got off easy.
Jup, the car industry is oil golden cow here in germany.
For how much longer though, with energy costs spiraling out of control? Even the US's auto industry is no longer competitive globally, and their energy situation is nowhere near as bad as ours here in Germany.
At this point the German auto industry is coasting forward on pure inertia since it is so big, but the recent mass layoffs and closures of factories have shown that it's only a matter of time until that inertia runs out.
The state will try to prop them up of course as long as they can, because if and when the auto industry implodes the effects on the German economy will be catastrophic. But that will come at the cost of more and more austerity.
Completely agree. And the bourgeoise government has no intention of doing anything about it, rather aquiring the largest army in europe is intended.
Most of big car is shifting towards the military-industrial complex. I come from a heavy auto industry-focused region in the south and it's absolutely catastrophic, young people are being laid-off en masse, while basically all factories are a minute from closer or moving out of the country.
Besides, austerity is the point, the trend in the west is trump/milei style holistic-canablization.
Nah, you're spot on. It's been a thing for many years now to sabotage the Bahn in favor of our automobile industry. It got so brazen that most designated heads of the Bahn were from that industry.