Note that in this particular case two trains belonging to a small regional short distance company collided.<p>I have relatives working for &quot;Die Bahn&quot;^, which is the actual national train company. And i can tell you that this kind of thing is a direct result of the privatization of the train industry in germany. First it simply resulted in less quality in transport, with money being saved on the maintenance of non-critical parts, such that i.e. one car per train may have non-functioning air control.<p>Now small unaffiliated transport companies have sprung up to cover very short distance trips on budgets just as short. The result is what you have in the article.<p>The only good news is that as of yet, travelling with Die Bahn is still safe, since they at least spend a lot of money on training and maintenance of critical parts.<p>^pronounced &quot;dee bahn&quot;, meaning &quot;The Rail&quot;