Haaba

BERLIN, Sept 26, 2007 (AFP) - German politicians and activists on Wednesday slammed plans to raise rail fares for the second time this year, saying the move was ridiculous because trains no longer run on time.

'It is pure provocation,' said the co-leader of the opposition Greens, Reinhard Buetikofer.

'It is a farce. Punctuality and customer service are not improving but the customers must pay more,' said MP Julia Kloeckner from Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats.

Deutsche Bahn, the country's state-owned rail operator, now plans to raise ticket prices by 2.9 percent in December and says it has no choice because its salary costs have gone up. The last fare increase was in January.

The company is embroiled in a wage standoff with a train drivers' union, which has threatened to launch nationwide strikes after negotiations collapsed earlier this month.

A standard second-class rail ticket from Hamburg to Munich costs 238 euros (336 dollars).

Covering the equivalent distance between the French cities of Paris and Marseille costs 188 euros, while in Italy, a train ride from Rome to Milan will set you back 134 euros.

German commuters are increasingly unhappy about fares that compare poorly to those in the rest of Europe, more so because they feel that the German rail system is not living up to its reputation for punctuality.

Deutsche Bahn claims that more than 90 percent of its trains arrive at their destinations with less than a five-minute delay.

But Bild am Sonntag newspaper quoted an internal company report which put the real figure at 78 percent.

Karl-Peter Naumannn, the head of the 'Pro-Bahn' consumer association, told AFP: 'There are frequent delays and often connecting trains don't wait for travellers. The inconvenience is very real.'

He dismissed Deutsche Bahn's justification for putting up prices, saying the company has managed to invest in a 1.85-billion-euro project to build a high-speed magnetic levitation (Maglev) train line in Bavaria.