[i-blis]

Surely a factor. As is the deregulation.

I've been living in Germany for a very long time and the real decline started some ten years ago. At the beginning mostly because of poor maintenance. My first years with the DB 100 card (allowing to travel on all trains) were a pleasure then it deteriote to the point where you start yourself: where is this heading. As I said, the ban of SBB on German trains was a turning point for me.

But You're right about the networks being different (mostly because France suppressed many local lines in the last 20 years.

[gzread]

Switzerland also gets the benefit of being a smaller country. I agree DB is poorly managed, but it's not nearly as bad as it could be.

I think another part of their problem is trying to run at very high utilisation ratios, which slightly increases throughput but vastly amplifies the cascade effect of a disruption.