That is a problem as since the introduction of the ticket there are constant talk from the car lobby politicians to remove it again. So bad for planning for the smaller rail companies.

But the biggest problem for the german trains remains the management of DB (Deutsche Bahn). Who are in charge of the network.

Who paid themself heavy bonuses all the time, while failing on all the metrics that mattered (they succeeded on making a new useless info page go live, that was the official justification for the bonus).

And they could do this, because the job of the ministry of transport was to make it easy for the car industry. And the german train is in theory privatized, in reality not so much.

The current ministry might be better though, so maybe something is happening. But I believe it, when I see it.