FRANKFURT AM MAIN, GERMANY – JUNE 17: Soccer fans travel by public transport in the Frankfurt City … [+]
Paul Brown’s train after his first match Albania – Italy in Dortmund was rerouted because of stones on the tracks. He arrived at 3 am in Dusseldorf, where he is based for the first two weeks of Euro 2024. Brown was not upset. He is a journalist. The delay suited him. In a peculiar agreement with his host, he could only return to his Airbnb after 4 am. Brown enjoyed a late-night kebab at a shop run by former Germany international Lukas Podolski before he trotted back to his Airbnb.
Brown has been the exception in Germany. Across the host nation of Euro 2024, fans and media have been frustrated by organizational chaos and major transport delays.
Supporters warmed to the tournament after a Covid-19-plagued Euro 2020 and the World Cup in Qatar, one of the most controversial sporting events in modern history. In the center of Europe, Germany is easily accessible. The Tartan Army took over Munich, Cologne, and Stuttgart before they were sent homeward ‘to think again’, the Albanese, with their qeleshes, dominated the streets of Dortmund and Dusseldorf, and Turkish supporters produced more than 100 decibels against Georgia. But simply getting to and from the stadiums to attend matches was often a nightmare.
Deutsche Bahn has been at the heart of the fans’s despair. Trains have been canceled, delayed, or overcrowded. In 2023, just 64 percent of all trains arrived at their destination on time, a historic low, according to statistics from the Bundestag. Deutsche Bahn then serves as an exception to Germany’s famous punctuality. A Deutsche Bahn spokesperson said: “In view of increasing short-term construction work over the course of the year, DB had repeatedly pointed out that it would miss the punctuality target of around 70 percent.”
“Deutsche Bahn is a shambles,” said supporter Harry Cathcart, present at all three Scotland group matches and a survivor of the 1974 World Cup in Germany. “I thought German rail was world class but in the main, they don’t run to any timetable whatsoever.”
Uefa and Deutsche Bahn provided free travel on regional transport in the six different hubs at this tournament. The railway, a national partner of the soccer body during the tournament, offered supporters a pass allowing for discounted bookings. “Every train that we went on was late,” said Gordon Laing, a travel companion of Cathcart and long-time Scotland fan, who attended his first major tournament at the 1990 World Cup in Italy. “The travel arrangements we had were awful. Cologne – Munich was the worst with a 90-minute delay. Of all the tournaments I have been to, this has been the worst.”
The delays did not just affect Cathcart, Laing, and hundreds of thousands of other supporters. Even tournament director Philipp Lahm’s train did not arrive on time to watch the group-stage match Ukraine – Slovakia in Dusseldorf. Belgium, Switzerland, Romania, and the Netherlands have been among the few teams to avail of the rail company in what Uefa has been eager to frame as a green European championship. In an e-mail, the European soccer body said that “the cooperation [with Deutsche Bahn] remains very close during the tournament.” The transport problems reflect badly on the European governing body after the poorly organized Champions League finals in 2022 and 2023.
Problems have extended to regional travel as well. Laing recalls dangerous scenes ahead of Scotland’s opener against Germany in Munich. After Scotland – Hungary, trams broke down in Cologne and supporters were forced to walk back to the city center. “The trains were unreliable, sweltering hot and packed with fans far beyond their capacity,” wrote the Association of Tartan Army Clubs.
“If UEFA insists that games kick off at 9 p.m., public transport must be improved. It’s a matter of time before something happens.”
England – Serbia in Gelsenkirchen was another flashpoint of local transport failing to cope with the supporters. The city of Gelsenkirchen however wrote: “There was no “chaos”. From our point of view, there were longer waiting times but never any critical situations. For the Italy – Spain game, signpostings were improved and additional capacity was provided in the area of a trainstop at the stadium (Willy-Brandt-Allee). The city of Gelsenkirchen developed the transport concept and is convinced that it meets the needs. Longer waiting times cannot be avoided when 50,000 people are leaving at the same time.”
Professor Christoper Böttger of the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft in Berlin points to the three reasons for the disarray: a sustained lack of investment in Germany’s public transport system, amplification through social media and the specific challenges that come with traveling soccer fans. In his view, short-term political thinking is at the heart of the disinvestment. He said: “It appears to be a problem of all Western democracies, the German public transport system is a wonderful case for this currently.”
He added: “There is a broad but unspecific feeling in Germany that a lot of topics are going in the wrong direction – health care, defense, infrastructure, education,…”
An activist group, the Allianz Pro Schiene argued that it should be “a signal to the federal government in particular to finally get its priorities right. What we experience now is the heavy burden of a long-time neglected railway – with growing traffic at the same time. The pent-up investment is that high – 92 billion Euros -that it will take years to improve the current state of the infrastructure.”
On Wednesday, the first round came to a close with Georgia claiming a maiden spot among the last sixteen. More chaos ensued before and after the kickoff – at Dusseldorf’s main railway station and the U-Bahn station near the stadium. Laing watched the match at his home in Lyme Regis, preparing for a holiday in Mallorca, where he expects little travel chaos. He concluded: “German efficiency, which we have all been brought upon, no longer exists.”