[josefx]

> a good coverage with modern and clean trains

But not a single ounce of reliability to be found among them.

> but I think it's also really hard to run a punctual train network with a country of this size in the middle of Europe

If it was just the punctuallity. However they can't even notify people of delays correctly. Just to take the most obvious example to ever exist: Last year the entire state of Bavaria got snowed in, most predictions put restoration of rail travel at around a week. For the first day the DB app reported cancellations one hour in advance, the following days it used a 12 hour window to cancel trains. At no point did they bother to put a realistic "don't bother we wont even get to your station for the next 5 days" anywhere on the app. The event may have been an outlier but them failing to anounce cancellations when they become aware of an issue is systematic, worst case you wont be aware that your train wont make it anywhere is when the conductors start handing out complaint forms the moment the train leaves the station. The entire DB is a clown show without equal.