flapping a sea of union flags in the wind on the Potsdamer Platz. Before the headquarters of Deutsche Bahn in Berlin are crowded railwaymen in orange safety vests. Bengal fire burning, thick clouds of smoke rising into the sky, and the noise of whistling, hooting and ratchets is deafening.
“And so it goes no further in this business. Not us,” exclaims Alexander Kirchner, head of the railway union ECG, in the amount, and chipped it past swells. In web-Tower observe from above the scene in the square, half amused, half worried. “Who would have thought that these tame TOE can organize such a circus,” marvels one.
Wednesday began bad about for Deutsche Bahn CEO Rüdiger Grube , You have to irritate correctly so that it calls for a demonstration outside the headquarters the TOE. But it got worse for mine. In the subsequent board meeting the concept of the Management Board for the rehabilitation of rail freight has been panned. The inspectors asked for a resubmission until next Wednesday. “It may happen that you see a need for readjustment. But that concept falls through such a crash, is something special,” a board member of said “Welt am Sonntag”.
“Rail freight is a tragedy “
the scenes of that day show how great nervousness in the group is currently. And how big the problems with Deutsche Bahn have become obvious. “Worryingly,” called a board member, the situation of the company. “There is practically in all sectors need for rehabilitation.” In web-Tower one admits it, at least in private conversation: “Rail freight is a single tragedy, the long-distance traffic must be extremely fight In our regional transport the collapse is politically desirable to enhance competition in the country prevails The rail network is a permanent construction site,.. and Stuttgart 21, we do not even need to talk, “says one.
In the figures, the reads as follows: In the first quarter, the Group has made 9.75 billion euros in sales, 160 million less than in the first quarter, 2015. pre-tax profit was around 385 million euros, 50 million less than last year. The previously stable logistics subsidiary Schenker reported sales losses and negative currency effects.
“2016 at best a year of sideways movement,” says one manager. It was already in 2015 a horror year. 1.3 billion euros loss had the web since retracted, essentially caused by write-downs in the rail freight and special charges due to restructuring of the Group. This was the first decline in twelve years. The figures recall the dauerdefizitäre Bundesbahn 80s – and heat up personnel speculation
“It is not unlikely that given the tense situation in the company and. the unforeseeable prospect of improvement rolling heads the board, “said one of the inspectors. And the board? Instead move together and closed to swear the Supervisory Board on a common course, the top management is mangled. From the “team”, the mine has always implored the board not much left. And the losers of the power struggle is the group must leave home.
At present, it looks like that Grubes deputy Volker Kefer gets the short end and to be destroyed in this summer at least partially. Kefer is for about a year, a kind of super Board of DB Group, responsible for the rail network, the major project Stuttgart 21 and the greatest challenge in the company, the restructuring program “future path”. Nobody – apart from mine – more power in the web as Kefer. But no one has even more construction sites, and other problems, which he does not appear to come to grips with. So any criticism on board and the state of the transport giant depends decisively against Kefer. And the criticism is getting louder.
In the federal government and the Supervisory Board to register increasingly concerned that Grubes rehabilitation program “future path” apparently much longer needs to have an effect, as expected. The pressure on the CEO therefore rises. “At the end of this year is the renewal of Rüdiger Grube, and if it is to happen, it must deliver to the year”, says the environment of checkers. Staggers pit so?
Not yet, but some in the company weathered fine shifts in the power structure. For example Volker Kefers ambitions. The one says after that he would like to inherit the CEO when his contract expires at the end 2017th Kefer wanted a year ago necessarily be super super board, much more powerful than he is currently already. Chief Operating Officer (COO), thus responsible for the entire operations, which had been his goal, also mentions in his environment.
Mine has recognized the danger
The federal government made him then a spanner in the works. Legally questionable is the, incompatible with European law, it was said at the chancellery. Whoever organizes rail operations significantly, could not even manage the network. This could discriminate DB competitors. So Kefer was only Super Board and Grube’s deputy. That such a can eventually move to the top management, is not so far-fetched.
But first, put pit and influential politicians fully on ex-head of the chancellery and DB board member Ronald Pofalla as future CEO. And second pit has the danger threatening him by Kefer recognized.
“The relation between the two is disturbed,” says a confidant Kefer. A supervisory board is clear: “We do not need to talk euphemistically atmospheric disturbance in this board here There is quite simply a power struggle..” In the Kefer, the worse cards. And at least since the beginning of June. At that time, the train had to concede that their major project Stuttgart 21 without countermeasure to further 623 million euros more expensive and finished later – possibly even until 2023, two years too late.
The financial framework of the project partners is not yet blown up, but all buffers are now exhausted. If the Proposal is another 300 million more expensive, which is not ruled out with an anticipated construction period of seven years, the disaster for the railway would be perfect. Because then Stuttgart expects 21 is no longer for the group, the lowered station would make losses. Responsible for this would Volker Kefer.
The had fought long respectable in the Württemberg state capital in the struggle for the construction of the deep station and railway junction. In the arbitration and the stress test of 21 S Kefer stepped knowledgeable, articulate, and diplomatically. No matter how hard ridden and unfair attack the enemies of the low station could lure him from the reserve. “But Volker Kefer has changed. The smart, Intermediary has disappeared,” says a close associate. “It has become more radical, uncompromising.”
Kefer felt responsible for everything, but he did not reverse the options, according to his team. “He said three years ago that the rail freight with the existing power hits the wall. But nothing happens,” one man Kefer. “He feels left the rest of the Board alone.” This can be seen elsewhere otherwise. “Kefer has all proposals for change. It occurs all on their feet, instead of getting his own store in the handle.
For example, Stuttgart 21 or the permanent problems the rail network, “says a railroader. In fact, the anger rises over the Super Board in the Group. Clearly that was the first time in April. As the train had declared at the end of the month for several weeks to block the ICE route between Hanover and Kassel for railway works – which automatically leads to diversions and delays. But the action was announced only four weeks before the start of the road closures, provoked nationwide massively for anger among passengers.
“We confirm every prejudice”
And that at times there was a danger that the Hannover Fair for Fair time is suspended, called the government of Lower Saxony on the plan. “Poorly planned. We confirm once again any prejudice against the web”, a senior railway staff admitted then a grudgingly. Responsible for this Volker Kefer.
The feel the emerging discontent. When managers fail on 15 April in Berlin CityCube he had tried to appease. He imagined 3500 top managers, spread his arms, smiled and said he apologized with the colleagues from the passenger for the bad planning of the network division in the route between Hanover and Kassel. “We assume all costs,” said Kefer. Many top people of appearance came at bad. “Patronizing” he was, they say. “If it turns back and smiles. In this disaster,” complains a top Bahner.
The rude noise in the company is a problem for Kefer, but is really dangerous sentiment on the supervisory board. “In March we were told, with Stuttgart 21 was all right, now alarm is again,” criticized a member of the supervisory body. “Either those responsible have known the board nothing of the new problems. That would be bad. Or you knew about it, and we have been deceived. That would be a real problem for the board in question.”
That Volker Kefer is already recalled at the meeting next Wednesday, is unlikely. “But in the summer is his contract extension on the agenda, and that needs to be scrutinized,” said a supervisory board. “One thing is clear: The current mandate wealth of Mr Kefer has to be reduced This is no longer so..”
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