[jhugo]

The lack of dedicated tracks for high-speed passenger service matters a lot though. It’s part of the reason why those (very impressive) scheduled Munich-Berlin times are so often not achieved. The “slot” for the service is relatively small because slower trains (in particular freight) must be scheduled as well, so if the slot is missed for any reason, delays can compound very badly. I take the train between Munich and Berlin reasonably often and it’s usually running late, and sometimes by an hour or more.

[welterde]

Reliability is certainly one aspect where dedicated tracks helps a lot, but is not the only solution (see for example Switzerland). For Germany the issue is the overall too large utilization of the network and the large backlog of required maintenance of the rail infrastructure (in my opinion).