Your next excuse is on platform 5 – German train travel has become an experience worthy of Kafka ( www.theguardian.com ) Englisch

Erratic Deutsche Bahn services make our commutes a misery. Luckily, their meaningless announcements are an art form

My favourite excuse is an expression that might one day be emblematic of contemporary Germany. I hear Deutsche Bahn wants staff to stop using it, but it can’t banish it from our minds. Verzögerungen im Betriebsablauf – “operational delays” – is meaningful and meaningless in a way that only the German language allows. One day it might even become one of those golden words co-opted into the English language – like zeitgeist or schadenfreude. (Let’s retire Blitz, a word that is jaded and overused in sport, politics and beyond.)

Verzögerungen im Betriebsablauf is the magic phrase for not getting anywhere fast while also suggesting everything is full steam ahead. It is sinister in a beautiful way. It is a phrase Kafka might use if he were writing today, a perfect description of a situation where no one can do anything but everyone is busy.

JoBo ,

One theory goes that the decline began in the mid-90s, when the government started its efforts to make Deutsche Bahn fit for sale.

Yep, that'll do it.

lurch ,

Privatising infrastructure is stupid AF. It was part of the 90s Zeitgeist, which haunts us to this day.

trollercoaster ,

And it was known to be stupid in the 1990s already. The only people who benefit from it are the investors. Everyone else pays for their dividend.

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